


The Wrong Steps to the Right Place

by ScribblerQueen1



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alpha! Eddie, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Beta! Iris, Bisexual Barry Allen, Bisexual Eddie Thawne, Chronic Illness, Don't Like Don't Read, Drunk Sex, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mpreg, Mutual Pining, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega! Barry, Polyamory, Slight Freeform, Slow Burn, Unplanned Pregnancy, Unrequited Love, maybe eventual smut, near miscarriage, vague soulmate themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:08:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27111688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribblerQueen1/pseuds/ScribblerQueen1
Summary: Barry accidentally has a drunk one night stand with Iris and Eddie. Neither of them remember but it changes how they feel about Barry and he’s trying to avoid getting his heartbroken if they remember. Barry also deals with a chronic illness, that is a result from being struck with lightning, that his speed-force can’t fix.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Eddie Thawne/Iris West, Eddie Thawne/Iris West
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

When Barry had first woken up from his coma he was perfectly fine. After a few hours of being awake it was clear that he wasn’t entirely fine, the most noticeable part being that he was now a speedster and the second being that his new found powers hadn’t healed all the damage from the lightning strike.

His body’s hormone system was showing regular damage and side effects from both the lightning strike and coma, his heat cycle had gone dormant thanks to the coma, it had also upset his natural bonding attachments from being unable to do any scenting or pack bonding. He had woken up and realized how detached he felt from everyone, especially Iris.

He woke up after nine months to find Iris dating Eddie Thawne, the transfer from keystone. Not only had being in the coma put a strain on their bond but her forming a new bond, a romantic one, when he had feelings for her had really affected it. He understood. Eddie was an attractive alpha who was interested in Iris, who was a beta.

Caitlin had talked him through it and explained how it wasn’t anyone’s fault but it still hurt to see her with Eddie. The whole experience had been painful. Him and Iris weren’t as close as they had been before. Then it had blown up in their faces that Christmas because he admitted his feelings, among other things. There weren’t any feelings on Iris’s side, at least not any romantic feelings. Eddie had gotten upset with him for a short while but Caitlin had explained that Barry and Iris’s bond had been physically damaged by the coma and that Barry had had feelings for her prior but not to be angry with him because they had lost that bond and that in a natural response due to the injury he was lashing out.

At first he assumed Caitlin had made it up but then she gave him some reading material about comas and bonding. How it affects relationships and how it emotionally impacted a person based on dynamics. 

Then when he was trying to fix things with Iris and Eddie it had broken down further. One night things had gotten misinterpreted between the three, taking Barry’s intentions of amending their friendship as testing the waters for a triad. They had gently rejected Barry before realizing their mistake but it had made it too awkward to continue to be more than formal around each other.

Caitlin had of course attempted to encourage him to try again, mostly for his own health because the damaged bonds affected his hormone levels which had been very unstable since he woke up. Studies showed that close bonds with the right balance of dynamics surrounding him would help repair the damage but Barry chose to stick with synthetic hormone treatments to maintain his levels especially once he started running into the reverse flash.

Caitlin had voiced concerns against it once the speedster had made his reappearance because of the emotional trauma that he was bringing up was worsening all of the effects the coma had on him. Experiencing unexpected drops, exhaustion and more hormone deficiencies. Things blew up in other ways later when it was revealed that he was the flash and Eddie nearly died with getting rid of Eobard. After that Barry had closed himself off following the singularity much to Caitlin’s frustration.

Eventually, Iris came around to make him pull his head out of his ass and he decided he could pretend everything was alright. Barry started to improve greatly once his father was proven innocent and he could scent and bond with him for the first time in fifteen years. His hormone levels started repairing and balancing out. Sometimes he felt like he could be genuinely happy for Iris and Eddie as they planned their wedding. 

Then Zoom broke his back. 

He spent another three days in a coma and lost all his progress. A few weeks after Wally West came into the picture and it threw him all out of whack. His hormones were all over the place and causing all sorts of health issues. When Zoom took his speed he had to call into work for a few days just because he was so out of it. Temporarily being in the speedforce to get his powers back had seemingly straightened out his body for a while. Iris and Eddie got married and everything went to hell.

Zoom killed his father. Right in front of him, in his childhood home where his mother had been murdered by the reverse flash. His health was shot once again after he finally defeated Zoom.

It had been a few months since everything had wrapped up with Zoom. It had been two years since he had woken up and his hormones were still messed up, he hadn’t had a heat in three. Singh forced him to take some time off, yelling at him about not taking any grievance leave, and gave him two weeks off. He spent most of it doing flash work anyway or at least he planned to. Wally as his new speedster in training had been bugging him about his single life.

“Dude, you’re supposed to be taking some time to yourself. That is why tonight we’re going out to have some fun, I got Cisco to whip up some of that higher concentrated alcohol for us too.” The younger alpha said to him excitedly. Barry couldn’t figure out how to say no. He really should have.

Barry slowly started waking up feeling like his head was pounding in a way he hadn’t felt since college. Cisco had done too well because he didn’t remember shit from last night. He started to move but then realized he couldn’t. Barry cracked open his eyes and first saw cream colored sheets. These weren’t his. It then became apparent that he wasn’t the only person in bed. His eyes snapped open wider. Under him, was a dark head of hair that was definitely Iris. Iris, who was definitely nude and so was he. He started to panic thinking about how Iris was married to Eddie and a movement behind him made him freeze. A glance back confirmed it was Eddie. Eddie who had his arms around him, tightly pressed up against him and also definitely naked. His stomach sank as he realized what had happened and then he fled.

He went straight to his room at Joe’s house and took a shower to rid himself of the evidence of where he had been, still very much freaking out. Joe must have heard him because he called out.

“Barry, are you home?” Once he was dressed, he walked down the stairs and saw him looking in concern. “Is everything alright? You didn’t come home after Wally last night.”

Even if he wasn’t an emotional wreck at the moment he was pretty sure he would have gone straight into Joe’s arms anyway.

“I did something stupid and it’s going to be a mess.” He cried into Joe’s chest. Joe pulled him over to the couch and sat him down in his lap, something he hadn’t done in a while. He instinctively started scenting Barry to get him to calm down.

“I’m sure whatever it is it’ll be fine. Do you want to talk about it?” He asked while rubbing his back comfortingly.

“Not really. It’s probably going to blow up in my face anyway. I shouldn’t have gone drinking with Wally. Cisco’s stupid alcohol worked so well I don’t even remember last night.” Barry word vomited his conundrum at Joe trying to figure out how he could fix the situation. 

“Barry does this have something to do with Iris?” Joe knew Barry well enough to be able to tell when his issues were about Iris, his whole demeanor tended to shift in a certain way when it was about her. Barry of course stiffened at the words, knowing full well he wouldn’t be able to hide it.

“What happened Barr?” Came the gentle question.

“I went out with Wally to have fun. We had the alcohol Cisco gave us and a while later Wally got a meta alert and he told me to stay but the alcohol must have really started hitting me afterwards and I must have blacked out because the next thing I remember is waking up in Iris and Eddie’s bed with both of them. I slept with them and I have no memory of it and I freaked out and left before they woke up.”

He was a sobbing mess at the end of the story. Joe spent more time trying to calm him down, wrapping him in his favorite blanket on the couch. 

“Listen. It’s going to be alright. Okay?” Joe just kept repeating it to him until he fell back asleep. 

When he woke back up, swaddled in several blankets, he could smell breakfast had been made. He looked over and saw it was almost noon. He sat up and looked over to see Joe and Wally in the kitchen eating. Wally looked as bad as he felt earlier.

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” He asked Joe, partly stumbling into the kitchen with at least two blankets still on him.

“I called in, told Captain Singh you were having a bad day. I also told Caitlin you would be seeing her for a check up.” He didn’t elaborate on why but Barry knew that his hormones were still very fragile and having an unexpected one night stand followed by an emotional breakdown was a sign that it was causing some health issues. He didn’t say anything else and Joe put down a plate in front of him.

“I’m sorry about last night, I didn’t think the alcohol would affect your hormones like that. I also didn’t expect to be hungover but we can blame Cisco for that.” Wally apologized quietly. He obviously didn’t know the real reason why Barry was having a “Bad day” but he was grateful for that. 

After eating, Joe took Barry to Star labs where Caitlin was waiting. She was not judgmental about what happened but quietly asked him how he was feeling as she ran some tests. She did make him go through a set of hormone treatments to offset the spike of hormone imbalances, which took a long hour of being hooked up to a machine.

“You should just rest for the day and then check in with me tomorrow.” Caitlin squeezed his arm in comfort and Joe drove him through the drive thru at Big Belly Burger before taking him back home where he cocooned himself on the couch. He took a peek at his phone to see that he didn’t have any messages and he didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing yet.

He returned to work a few days later when Caitlin cleared him to Captain Singh, who had extended his time off after Joe had talked to him. He didn’t argue, he was honestly avoiding both Iris and Eddie, who he hadn’t heard from since that day. On his first day back he was early to avoid coming and having to pass Eddie on the way up to the lab. He stayed in the lab all morning, letting some of the other CSIs take the field calls which were all non-meta related.

Around lunch time a knock on the door startled him. He looked up and stilled when he saw Eddie. Nothing seemed off with him in regards to seeing Barry. He wondered now if the other two had gotten two drunk to remember also and it hurt him.

“Hey Barry, Joe said you haven’t been feeling well and I heard you were finally back to work but I hadn’t seen you.” Eddie smiled brightly at him. It gave him zero indication of any memories of that night but it also threw him for a loop because Eddie hadn’t been this friendly with him in a while.

“I brought you some lunch, something healthy because you weren’t feeling well.”

“Thanks Eddie, I-uh wasn’t expecting it.” It was weird and it unnerved him. Eddie came over and pulled a chair to sit down handing Barry one of the lunches and then opened his own and started eating.

“Something wrong? Do you not like it? I was pretty sure Iris said you like this.” He asked him when he didn’t react for a minute. It startled Barry to attention and he quickly reassured him that he was fine.

“It’s fine, I guess I’m still out of it, I had some new hormone treatments this week so I just feel off, I guess.” Barry just shrugged his shoulders and started eating to avoid more scrutiny.

“Is Caitlin trying something new because you haven’t improved? Is she concerned about something, I mean you’ve had these issues for two years now right?” There was genuine concern for Barry that he could feel in the pheromones that he was giving off. It was weird all around.

“Technically, it’s been three with the coma. She’s gotten more concerned that I haven’t had a heat cycle and that I keep having roadblocks to my recovery so-uh-yeah.” He just nodded in understanding.

“I hadn’t even thought about how you haven’t taken off for your heat. That must have made it even more difficult when you were with Patty.” Eddie slightly grimaced at his own words and he didn’t know why.

“Yeah aside from, yah know, she was kind of overprotective because of it. I think she was trying to out scent Joe, which kind of pissed him off.” Barry shrugged if off and continued to eat the food. 

Eddie decided that he should back off the topic and moved on to more casual topics. The whole experience was just weird. Eddie didn’t come bring him lunch and sit and eat with him. He didn’t check in on his health or ask questions about it either. They weren’t casual together. 

It was just bizarre to him. Eddie had no clue about that night either. Just that Barry was unexpectedly sick afterwards. Iris hadn’t confronted him either. Normally she would have, especially since he left without a word in the morning. It would have pissed her off enough to confront him but she didn’t. Which meant neither of them remember and he didn’t know what to do because they may not have remembered but their bodies definitely did. They were acting different or at least Eddie was. He hadn't seen Iris yet.

Finally, Joe showed up in the lab obviously concerned that Eddie was there and gave Barry a look but he waved him off.

“Hey, Eddie we’ve got a call.” Joe said getting the alpha’s attention.

“Oh, okay. Barry are you going to be on the scene or?” He left the question open, waiting for a response.

“Uh-no, I’m just going to stick with the lab today and catch up on cases.” He seemed disappointed by the response and just nodded picking up his containers and leaving with Joe looking back concerned one last time.

About ten minutes later Joe texted him about it and he replied that he didn’t think that either of them remembered.

“ _ Are you okay with that? _ ” Joe texted in response.

“ _ I don’t know how to feel about it. _ ” It was honest at least.

After work he went to Star labs for another appointment with Caitlin. Wally was handling meta-humans until she cleared him for it. He was halfway through a treatment when Iris walked in.

“Hey, I haven’t heard from you all week. Dad said you haven’t been feeling well.” She glanced at the needle in his arm and then frowned. “How’s the treatment going, I know they kind of suck.”

“I’m fine, I’m used to it.” He tried reassuring her but it only made her look more concerned.

“I still hate seeing you like this, I spent nine months not knowing you were going to wake up. If you were going to be fine. And yet it’s been two years and you still need hormone treatments.” She squeezed his hand as she talked to him. She was acting the same as Eddie but it was more familiar with Iris. She hadn’t been giving off the same natural affection since he first woke up from the coma. Her pheromones were naturally trying to comfort him, it was really nice.

“Hey, after you're done with your treatment, I’ll buy you whatever food you want. It’s been a while since we’ve done something together.” Iris decided to lighten the mood with him. It was weird that both Eddie and Iris were trying to feed him as well. Not that he wasn’t always hungry. He was a speedster and these treatments took most of his energy.

“I think you might regret that. You know how much I eat on a regular day.” He cracked the joke. He decided that maybe what happened wasn’t so bad. It felt like things were normal again with Iris. Caitlin popped back into the room, the fellow omega giving him a look that he couldn’t quite place. She checked his vitals and pulled out a prescription for him.

“This one you take twice a day, twelve hours apart.” She gave him his dosing instructions. “And please try not to have any more hormonal disruptions.” 

She said pointedly glancing slightly toward Iris. Caitlin meandered in the room off to the side doing various things until his treatment finished, listening in on the light conversation when Caitlin started to detach him from the machines Iris announced that she was going to get her car and pull it up to the entrance. Once she was clear from the cortex, Caitlin turned on him.

“I take it they were also too drunk to remember what happened?” It was more of a rhetorical question but he nodded in response. 

“Eddie was the same way this morning. It honestly feels weird.” He admits to her.

“There seem to be some pseudo-bonding side effects from that night. Being protective, wanting to provide, forming attachments and wanting to develop them. It’s common when Alphas and Betas sleep with an omega they’re already close to. You might want to set some more boundaries in the meantime. The symptoms should wear off in a few weeks as long as you don’t sleep with them again.” Caitlin explained quietly and professionally. Barry just nods. A few moments later Iris comes back and she links arms with him and they go to her car.

They go and get Chinese food at his request, ordering a few combo platters and then they sit outside and eat and talk. She tries asking him about one of the crime scenes from today but he has nothing to give her much to her dismay.

“I was sure you would have been with Dad and Eddie, what crime scene did you go to?” She asks, gently prying for any information.

“It was my first day back, so I stayed in the lab and caught up on paperwork.” Barry said and Iris gave him the same look that Eddie had earlier when he didn’t join them at the crime scene.

“What that’s not like you Barry. You’re usually so territorial about evidence procedure.” She put her hand on his. “Are you sure you’re okay? You did have some bad days this week and you started a new treatment.” He squeezed her hand in return.

“I’m fine, I promise. I’m just taking my time in coming back, that’s all.” She didn’t seem to believe him but backed off the subject. Iris then drove him back to Joe’s where Eddie had stopped in for a beer with Joe, a regular occurrence.

“Hi Dad, Eddie.” Iris greeted the two as they walked in. Eddie got up to give her a kiss and then paused at Barry, slightly confused about what he should be doing. Joe stepped in before he could continue the thought.

“How was your appointment, Barr?” He asked, glancing at Eddie’s posture towards Barry. Eddie got the same concerned look on his face as earlier.

“It was fine, same as usual. Iris came and sat with me and got me Chinese food afterwards.” He grinned slightly at Iris in their familiar teasing way. Joe nodded and then greeted Iris, who asked Eddie if he was ready to go home. He grabbed his coat and said his goodbyes, offhandedly hugging Barry, which felt really nice.

The next day, both Iris and Eddie joined him for lunch in his lab. He also joined Joe and Eddie at their crime scene which made Eddie super pleased. It was slightly unnerving at how much attention he paid to his analysis but he seemed genuinely interested and not confused like Joe, which was a plus. He was keeping boundaries up, much to their dismay. He accepted normal physical contact but anything that deviated he would move away from it. They both tried to make changes to his plans of action when it came to his flash duties if they felt it was too dangerous but he would gently assert that he knew what he was doing. They hovered over his normal post battle check ups and he would ask them to give him some space. The boundaries were making them antsy though, so Caitlin suggested that he placate them with a neutral activity.

He figures that making it a family event will keep them from thinking of it as anything else. He suggests they do a movie night. It was a tradition of theirs that they hadn’t done since his coma. Iris immediately got excited when he told her about it, discussing with him what movies they should choose and their favorite movie snacks. Once they let everyone know, they choose to have it on a Saturday once everyone is off. Saturday night came and Iris came through the door arms bursting with blankets and pillows, Eddie carrying bags of snacks behind her. 

“I brought these so we can do a cuddle pile.” She says, grinning from ear to ear. He had almost forgotten they did cuddle piles when it came to movie nights, he was unsure if it would cross some boundaries but he figures they wouldn’t, they had been good about respecting them. 

He also didn’t want to ruin it for Wally, who immediately got excited to participate in his first cuddle pile and the alpha sped upstairs to collect more blankets and pillows for the occasion. Joe finally emerged from the kitchen having made the popcorn and brought out drinks for everyone before they started the cuddle pile. Barry had arranged it for maximum comfort and was very proud of his work, taking a second to admire it when Iris pulled him down to sit. 

She pulled him down in between her and Eddie, snuggling up to him and pulling over some of the blankets, throwing a large one over the three of them. She grabbed another and tossed it over her brother and father and had it meet in the middle partly covering Barry as well. Once they settled in they started the movie, passing around snacks. As the movie progressed they naturally started to scent one another instinctively after having gotten comfortable in the cuddle pile. He knew it would happen but he was still surprised when Eddie had leaned over and casually scented him.

He was still focused on the movie but he had kind of tucked Barry’s head under his while scenting him. He then partly wrapped his arm around his waist, pressing against him firmly. It reminded him of the morning that he had woken up in their bed. His face heated up and Barry felt awkward now that he remembered it. Iris must have felt it too because she moved back toward him after scenting Wally and started snuggling again.

The movie ended and Barry removed himself from them much to Iris’s indignation and excused himself to the bathroom. He spent the next few minutes calming himself down. When he returned, he found that Joe had ‘opened up’ a seat next to him where he sat down thankful for a breather from the situation. He got some cuddles and a scenting in with Joe and Wally during the next movie but Joe decided he was good for the night and went upstairs.

Iris managed to bait the rest of them into a third movie. Barry didn’t make it too far into the movie and fell asleep unaware that he had been maneuvered in between Iris and Eddie again. Wally managed to finish the last movie only to notice that they were all asleep by that point and decided that he would rather sleep in a bed and went upstairs.

Barry is starting to think he should just stop sleeping because when he wakes up he’s practically pinned in between Iris and Eddie once again. This time they all have clothes at least. Iris wakes up soon after and giggles at him.

“Morning Barr, nice bedhead.” She ruffles it for extra effect and he tries to move away from the offending hand and ends up waking Eddie in the process.

“What are you doing? Just go back to sleep.” He mumbles half coherently and presses his face into Barry’s neck. The action makes him squirm and Eddie tightens his grip. “It’s too early, be still.”

Iris laughs and rolls away from them and gets up and goes into the kitchen. “I’ll make you coffee.” She tells her husband and he grunts and continues to hug Barry.

When the smell of coffee reaches them, Joe and Wally come downstairs half awake in search of caffeine. Eddie still has a hold of Barry and he’s opted to scroll through his phone as he wakes up. Iris enters the living room with two cups of coffee.

“Come on babe, release Barry and have your coffee.” Eddie begrudgingly does so and takes his drink. Once he’s released, Barry takes his cup from Iris.

“Thank you.” The whole situation was throwing him off. Neither of them has felt strange about being so affectionate with him despite their previous conflict. They hadn’t seemed less intense either. It has been long enough that the pseudo bond should’ve weakened but that hadn’t happened. He would have to talk to Caitlin about it.

“I’ll start making breakfast.” Eddie declared having drank enough coffee to be awake. He got up stretching looking toward Barry. “You make a wonderful teddy bear, Barr.” Eddie laughed and winked as he slipped in the pun.

“That’s how he got the nickname in the first place.” Iris commented as he walked into the kitchen. “His hugs are always the best.”

“I’ll agree on that.” The compliment made his stomach flutter. He wasn’t used to having that feeling with Eddie but he had also never been this close to Eddie either. He got up and walked into the kitchen and watched Eddie start to make breakfast. Iris pulled him into some small talk while they waited. Eventually, plates of food were set, Barry and Wally having the most with just slightly more on Barry’s plate. Barry took a bite and looked up to see Eddie trying to conceal his expectant gaze.

“The food is really great, Eddie.” He complimented him and got a bright smile in return.

Joe gives him a look from down the table that the other two can’t see and knows that from his expression that Joe can tell he’s still lost on the whole situation. Sometime later as he’s taking the last few sips of his coffee, a meta alert goes off and he and Wally zip off to take care of it.

It’s a quick job, the meta wasn’t much of a threat to begin with and he and Wally head to Star labs afterwards. Wally slows down in the hall before the cortex and Barry stops when he notices. Wally motions him over to the side to talk.

“Hey Barry, I’ve been meaning to ask, is there something going on with you and Iris and Eddie? I’m just asking because you seem uncomfortable lately with them. I don’t mean to pry, I’m just concerned.” Wally asks him, he has the same sort of look Joe has had on his face lately when it comes to the situation. Wally definitely gets that from Joe and Barry would mention it if he wouldn’t get more concerned about the situation because Wally had noticed something was up.

He bit his lip as he debated internally with himself and Wally just gave him a look like he was waiting for a response.

“It’s kind of complicated, somethings changed between me and them recently because of something stupid. I kind of already accepted things wouldn’t be like that and got over it, but I’m worried that things might get messed up, so I’m trying to set boundaries back to where they were.” 

Barry weaves the explanation vaguely so that he doesn’t have to explain what happened that night but a look of understanding in Wally’s eyes tells him he can see through his weak explanation.

“Is there anything I can do?” He’s not subtle at offering to run interference but Barry just shakes his head. “Alright, just let me know if you need anything.” They finish the conversation and finally head to the cortex for the team debrief.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New Recruits at CCPD cause problems for Barry.

A few weeks later things seemed to finally be calming down, that was until CCPD’s new police recruits started coming into the station to work with their field training officers. When he first heard they were coming he couldn’t help but dread it. The first reason he never liked new recruits was because he always ended up having to chew them out about proper evidence procedure. What was so hard about not touching the scene until a CSI got there? Also remembering to put on gloves and not spit on the ground. He sure entertained the older officers who knew better and enjoyed watching the over eager recruits chewed out by their baby faced omega CSI.

The second thing was that the recruits were young knot-headed alphas who couldn’t help but flirt with omegas while showing off their badge. Barry was often a prime target to them which led to another issue. The whole department had practically known Barry since he was eleven when Joe took him in. He instantly became a member of the CCPD pack and was always considered the baby of the pack. 

They were also very protective of him. It was like being given a couple dozen extra parents, who were all cops and absolutely no one met their standards for being Barry’s significant other. Especially the new recruits. Every time new recruits came in they all started marking their territory and making sure they knew Barry was off limits. It was an issue since he hit puberty and started his heats once he presented as an omega.

So his day started off cursing out a bunch of new recruits the second he entered a crime scene. He had caught them standing right next to the body and leaning down to move it. They could have stepped on evidence being that close, let alone disturbing the body. Their field training officers immediately removed them from the area, apologizing because they were supposed to be interviewing the witnesses.

He got a meta alert in between crime scenes and had time to cool down before he headed back to the station, where word had gotten around about the omega CSI.

He was giving out a handful of reports when the inevitable happened. He had stepped away after setting a file down on Detective Sanders desk and nearly walked into one of the new alpha recruits.

“So what’s your name, omega?” Barry grimaced when he called him omega, it was degrading. He tried to move away from the alpha but he moved with. “Hey, I asked you a question, omega.”

He tried to grab Barry’s arm but he wasn’t fast enough. The small outburst did catch some nearby attention from his co-workers. Barry honestly had no patience for this and decided he was going to cut the alpha off.

“Don’t call me that and second off, I’m busy working. Please don’t interrupt me again.” He sidestepped the alpha and went to put another file on a desk.

“You can’t talk to me like that!” The outrage was clear in his voice and several officers stepped forward.

“I suggest you cool off, right now.” Officer Thompson warned him and the alpha growled at him.

“Stay out of this.” That was such a stupid move on his part, not that he probably realized it.

“Officer Davidson, my office.” Captain Singh had appeared from the office sensing the tension, the alpha cowered a bit at the command and quickly retreated to the office. Singh shared a look with Barry to confirm that he was fine and then shoved the door shut.

Barry wasn’t phased at all and continued on distributing files before returning to his lab.

It of course wasn’t the last incident of the day. He got approached at a crime scene, then in his labs, and both times they had gotten chased off by senior detectives while Barry blatantly ignored them. Three alphas being reprimanded didn’t scare them apparently because alpha number four came strutting over confidently while he signed for a package at the front desk.

“So how come an omega as pretty as you, doesn’t have a mate?” He rolled his eyes, he’d heard that so many times he wanted to get struck by lightning again.

“I’m not interested.” He finished signing for the package and handed the device back in exchange for the package.

“Come on, I’m sure an omega like you wants a young, strong alpha like me. Besides there aren’t a lot of us here, just a bunch of mated and old guys on their way to retirement.” This guy was really pushing it. Insulting other alphas wasn’t going to work in his favor either.

“I said, I’m not interested.” Barry huffed at the alpha and a familiar voice called out.

“Hey Barr, everything okay?” Eddie walked up giving his usual smile. The alpha turned and looked him up and down, eyes landing on his ring.

“Listen, you’re already mated, can you butt out.” The alpha bit out at Eddie, whose smile turned real quick at that. 

“And he told you he’s not interested.” Eddie growled back at the alpha. Barry had to admit it was extremely attractive and he had never seen Eddie go all alpha before.

“What would he want to do with a pathetic alpha like you anyway?” The alpha tried to challenge Eddie and Eddie just laughed in his face.

“I’m his brother-in-law you knothead.” It seemed like the alpha’s brain imploded a bit at that.

“Uh-what?” He stared dumbly. “I thought you were married to Detective West’s daughter?”

“That’s right, and the man you keep harassing is also my son.” Joe appeared right behind Eddie glowering at the alpha. He kept looking between Joe and Barry confused as hell before Barry rolled his eyes.

“I’m adopted, I don’t want to date you, what else do you not understand?” He said slowly and it seemed to finally click and the alpha scurried away, his face burning with embarrassment.

Eddie smiled at him once again when he had fully disappeared from view.

“How do you act so calm around those assholes?” Eddie asked him as they walked with him to his lab.

“I’ve been dealing with it since I was thirteen, I just ignore them or tell them to go away and the other officers usually take care of them.” Barry shrugged his shoulders. Eddie got upset though.

“Since you were thirteen? Now I know why Joe is so protective of you.” He glanced down the stairs at some of the new recruits with an indistinguishable look on his face before looking back up at Barry.

“So what do you have on the new meta case.” Joe continued on with business as usual.

Later that night as Barry got ready for bed he began to question if maybe he did want to be closer to both Iris and Eddie.

The next morning he brought Eddie muffins as a thank you present for intervening with the alpha and took a little pleasure at the disheartened looks from the new recruits. Eddie beamed at him with so much happiness that he glowed a little. He also flashed by Central City Picture News and left some cronuts for Iris. His phone buzzed with a text thanking him from Iris and he felt good about it.

When he got called to a crime scene, he was pleased to see that Eddie and Joe had been assigned. The new recruits were all keeping their distance, glancing occasionally at Eddie, who was standing protectively in between right next to him. Joe was giving them all his fatherly stare of death warning them to stay the hell away from his son. He quickly snuck a picture of the two and sent it to Iris, captioning it with ‘ _ so we have new recruits again.’ _

He received a string of emojis laughing and a text calling them ‘ _ adorable’ _ for ‘ _ protecting their omega’ _ in response. Barry slightly preened at the way she worded the text, he couldn’t help it.

They finally cleared the scene and he went back to work in his lab, running tests on evidence. Part way through the day Iris texted him about going to see a movie with her and Eddie and he frowned a bit in disappointment.

“ _ I can’t. I have a check up with Caitlin. Raincheck? _ ” He texted her back.

She replied back with a frowny face and then texted back. “ _ Raincheck. _ ”

He finished running all the tests he needed to before heading to Star labs where Caitlin was waiting on him. He’d been through it enough that it was basically routine and he just went through the motions as Caitlin ran her test on him.

“You’ve lost weight again.” She frowned, looking at the scale’s new measurements. “Are you sure you’ve been eating enough?”

Barry’s nose scrunched up in confusion. “As far as I know. You know I’m eating half the time you see me.” She goes to her computer and looks at his vitals for the past few weeks.

“Everything looks fine here.” She mutters and pulls over her vials to collect some blood samples. He diligently holds out his arm and when she finishes Cisco brings him over snacks and a drink.

“Either way you should probably eat some more. I’ll take a look at improving your meal bars as well. Maybe I messed up the last batch.” He poses the theory to Caitlin who shrugs at the suggestion. She continues to run the test and the results come through about twenty minutes later.

“Everything seems normal, hormones are still low but we’ll do a treatment.” She says assessing the results. “I can’t find anything explaining the weight loss, it’s ten pounds over two weeks. I’ll run more tests later but try and keep a better track of your calories this week.” He nods and she goes ahead and hooks him up to start his treatment. 

He spends the hour munching on snacks Cisco brings him and discussing their favorite shows. He also gets a text from Felicity talking about a ‘boring’ business meeting she complains that she and Oliver are going to attend in Central city, asking to meet up so that the trip wouldn’t “ _ suck as much as it’s going to _ ” she texts him.

“Awesome they’re going to be in town, ask if she wants to do trivia night at jitters.” Cisco immediately tells him and he passes the message on to Felicity.

“ _ That sounds fun, I bet you could trick Oliver into joining us, Barry. _ ” She texts back and he wonders how long it would take to convince the alpha.

A few days later, Felicity pops into CCPD to take Barry out for lunch while Oliver is busy dealing with things that don’t need her attention. The beta definitely catches the attention of some of the recruits when she walks into the building but they’re still focused on Barry for the most part, especially because Eddie and Joe are out. Which means when she walks in one of those alphas is invading his space trying to coerce him into a date and Felicity knows he is not pleased.

“I’m sorry, he’s already taken.” Felicity is downright terrifying when she wants to be, Oliver has always had a healthy respect for the beta because of it. It’s why he chose her after all. “Barry, are you all set to go to lunch?” She turns to him sweetly with the alpha frozen next to her. 

Barry is happy to use her as a quick escape and grabs her hand on the way to get his things. Dig is waiting for them with the car and greets Barry. The three of them head over to a restaurant that Oliver prefers to go to when in central.

“A table for three.” Diggle tells the host when Felicity interrupts.

“Four actually, Oliver just texted, he’s on his way in a cab.” She says and Diggle rolls his eyes, annoyed that Oliver didn’t ask to be picked up.

They get seated and Oliver joins them a few seconds after drinks are brought to the table, Felicity having ordered for him. He greets Felicity with a kiss and Barry manages to get a hug out of him, Oliver tries to pretend that he’s annoyed but Barry knows he actually likes the hug. He sits down and opens a menu.

“Hopefully your day’s going better that mine is.” Oliver mentions in annoyance, referencing the meeting that he’d come from.

“I don’t think so, there was some alpha harassing Barry when I walked in to CCPD.” Felicity mentions without a thought.

“What?” Oliver looks toward Barry for an explanation and Barry rolls his eyes at him.

“It’s just one of the new recruits acting like a knothead, they’re a minor inconvenience at most. Besides, Felicity probably nearly made him shit his pants when she growled at him.” He brushes off his concern. While Oliver played big and scary, he knew he was a soft hearted over protective alpha who has a younger omega sister that made him instinctively protective of omegas.

Thea teased him about it constantly too, especially when he would call to check in on Barry after big fights with Metas. She was often in the background of those calls harassing him loudly enough for Barry to hear. He knew Oliver felt responsible for him as a superhero mentor, which was why he was always concerned for him.

“Still, some asshole shouldn’t be harassing you at work.” Oliver argued with him.

“It’s not like they aren’t being reprimanded, I have plenty of over protective co-workers who’ve all known me since I was eleven. I’m fine, I just ignore them and like half of CCPD swoops in and threatens them. Also you forgot my foster dad works there, you really think he would let anything happen to me?” He huffs in annoyance at Barry’s argument.

“If you say so.”

Felicity quickly moves them to another conversation about what food everyone is having. Barry orders spaghetti, which is authentic in the way that there’s too much for a normal person to eat. That is however not a problem for him. Oliver orders steak and includes several appetizers for Barry. Felicity picks a chicken and pasta dish with a fancy name he doesn’t catch half of and Diggle sticks with a burger. Barry enjoys the meal with his friends and even has a bit of fun weirding out Diggle with eating a majority of the appetizers, a salad, the entirety of the spaghetti and meatballs, the Italian bread, and half of the soup that came with Felicity’s food that she offered knowing that she wouldn’t be able to finish leftovers at the hotel knowing that they were only staying a short while. They however did get a good laugh out of the confused face on their waiter who wasn’t expecting all the food to disappear as fast as it did.

Oliver looked at his watch and then turned to Barry.

“Do you want dessert to go? Your lunch is almost up.” He mentioned and Barry accepted the offer knowing that Oliver would probably order it regardless. Felicity looked at the menu with him discussing the choices and they both decided to get a decadent looking chocolate cake. 

Oliver took care of the check while the waiter went and boxed up the cakes to go. Once it was settled Oliver insisted on driving him back to CCPD so that his cake wouldn’t catch fire if he ran or knowing him, crash into something.

“See you tonight for trivia at Jitters!” Felicity waved goodbye to him as he headed into the precinct. He waved back and then headed to his lab to catch up on cases.

He hadn’t been in for long when Eddie popped in. “Hey did you have a meta, you weren’t in your lab for lunch, I brought takeout.” He smiled holding a bag.

“Uh-no, I had plans for lunch. Felicity and Oliver are in town for business so we met up.” Eddie looked surprised at the statement and slightly disappointed.

“Okay, I didn’t realize. I’ll still leave this with you, you can probably still use it.” He finished awkwardly and then quickly left the lab which was weird to Barry. He put the food away with the cake and then continued to do his work.

Later he did have to deal with a meta, which left him feeling a little drained more than usual, so he ended up eating the food pretty quickly after covering the crime scene. He sent Eddie a picture of the empty wrapper and texted him that it was delicious. He seemed to be in a better mood after.

As he finished up work, Felicity texted him that they were waiting downstairs and would walk with him to Jitters when he was done. He finished up the last of the reports and got the files together to bring to Singh and grabbed his bag. He made his way down the stairs and looked around for them and spotted them off to the side and waved when the first alpha recruit that had harassed him, officer Davidson, was blocking him again.

He groaned when he recognized him and immediately tried to go around him but it didn’t work.

“Look, I already told you I’m not interested. Go away.” He gritted out at him but he didn’t budge.

“I’m not the type of guy that takes no for an answer.” Was that supposed to be romantic? This guy needed a reality check and probably an IQ test.

“There’s a first time for everything.” Barry snarks at him and he’s about to reply when he gets pulled back. Oliver has him by the shoulder and is practically fuming while emitting several different pheromones of a territorial nature.

“What is it that you don’t understand about the word  _ no _ ?” He growls threateningly at him and it riles the other alphas up, feeling very much like a challenge.

“I don’t think you know who you’re messing with buddy.” The alpha’s own threat means nothing to him, not that the idiot knows it though. Oliver, still having a hand on the alpha’s shoulder shoves him back still holding onto him but puts himself between Barry and him.

“He told you to leave him alone and you are going to.” He finally shoves him away fully and turns to Barry while watching the other alpha. He reaches out sending Barry some comforting pheromones and he gets a face full of Oliver’s scent, which is nice, and Oliver pulls him over slightly scenting him and rubbing a hand along his side. The whole thing was less to make Barry feel better and more to make a statement to other alphas. Barry and Oliver both knew that very well.

However it only pissed off the other alpha more. Oliver saw the punch coming just as quickly as he pinned the alpha to the wall twisting his arm, the man yelling intelligibly. A couple officers jumped in to pull them away from each other and Felicity moved next to Barry, standing slightly in front of him.

Someone had gotten Singh and told him the situation. He had officer Davidson taken to his office and once he was there the others released Oliver. Singh didn’t need any extra information, he just confirmed that he was okay with Oliver and then went to deal with Davidson.

While that happened, Oliver and Felicity took protective stances next to Barry while scenting him out of instinctive reactions. It was definitely helping with his hormones and helped alleviate some of the side effects from his chronic hormone illness, so he embraced it.

“Hey, Barry, we heard what happened.” Joe immediately went to him as he came off the elevators. He gave a passive nod to Oliver in his way of thanks, despite his dislike of him. Eddie who followed behind just remained neutral, which was not the same way he acted when Barry had previously been harassed and he wondered about the difference. Captain Singh came out of his office and pulled Barry aside to talk to him, he explained everything that had happened and then gave him his reports before getting the all clear to go.

“Come on we can still make it for the trivia night at Jitters, I’ll see you at home Joe, bye Eddie.” Barry said, deciding that he wanted to leave as soon as possible. Eddie distractedly said goodbye to him as he left with the two to meet up with Cisco and Caitlin.

Eddie and Iris were aware that something was different between them and Barry. For the past few months they had been more open and close with him, they felt compelled to be in a way they hadn’t previously. Iris had admitted that she hadn’t felt that way since before the particle accelerator exploded and Eddie’s change in feelings were something he couldn’t quite pin down.

They had spent several nights discussing the issue with no clear conclusion but they did agree on spending more time with Barry, which was kind of hard because he wasn’t always reciprocating the same way which irked them. But at the same time they remembered that they had previously rejected Barry and that he was obviously protecting himself from whatever this change in relationship was. The omega was more sensitive to his bonds once he had woken up from the coma and that hadn’t changed.

It was also another concern that had been uprooted, in fact it had all coincided with these feelings. It had started around the time that Iris had convinced Eddie that they should do date night at a new club that CCPN was covering. It was as great as the reviews said, good food and cheap drinks, full of energy. The next morning they might not have said the same, being very hungover but she knew that there was something more that felt wrong than just the hangover as she and Eddie recovered from their date night, something was just off.

Eddie got called into work later on that afternoon and had texted her while she worked on an article.

“ _ Joe called into work. Singh asked if I had heard anything about Barry? _ ” Iris had quickly texted her father to see if there had been some sort of under the radar meta business. He had texted her back pretty quickly.

“ _ Barry’s having a bad day. Took him for a check up with Caitlin. _ ” It was short and vague. A bad day for Barry was code for hormone sickness. He had seemed fine the last time she remembered seeing him. They had gotten his bad days under control she thought and they usually saw the signs when they came on, unless something stressful enough happened like when Zoom broke his back or when Henry died but her dad hadn’t mentioned anything else.

“ _ It’s a bad day. He says he took him to Caitlin. _ ” She texts Eddie back. She wonders if she should text Barry but an appointment with Caitlin could mean a hormone treatment and it generally was a miserable affair. She also doesn’t know if he’s finished with the appointment or if he’s still there. If it’s finished, he’s hungry and exhausted, dad will force him to sleep so she refrains.

“ _ That’s not good :(  _ “ She can tell Eddie feels the same way through her bond with him.

She hears Barry is back at work from Edie but that he’s cooped himself up in the lab, he also mentions the new treatment Caitlin has him on. It bugs her and so after work she heads to Star labs with no clear objective. She finds Barry halfway through a new treatment and she can’t remember the last time he had two treatments so close.

Eddie agrees that all this weirdness started when Barry got sick.

“What if something’s wrong with him?” Eddie puts the concern out there. It’s been bouncing around in his head and he has to let it out. Iris’s stomach sinks at the thought. “Sometimes packs sense things are wrong before it shows up in a test.”

It’s their most recent discussion on the subject and they can’t help but research the possibilities. They hope spending more time with Barry will help but he had started pushing them away. Iris is worried he already knows what’s wrong but then he finally lets them closer and she knows it’s not that.

Barry’s not hiding any medical issues, she’s pretty sure that he would be more resistant to her being at his appointments. They are disappointed about no movie night but Barry’s health is more important. Then Eddie comes home from work agitated. He had been the past few days but not as much as now.

“Are those recruits still harassing Barry?” Iris asks and he gets a very sour look on his face. “Did something happen?”

“Kind of.” He looks confused now, Eddie crosses his arms. “There was a confrontation with Davidson again but Oliver stopped it.”

“Oliver? What’s he doing in central?” She hadn’t heard anything about that.

“Some business related thing, Barry had lunch with him and Felicity today and they were going to trivia night at Jitters.” Eddie grumbles the response and then Iris feels a very similar way to how he is acting about it but she’s thrown off by it. There’s no reason for her to feel that way but she’s not interested in being reasonable right now, she wants to sit on the couch and be grumpy like Eddie is right now. 

She takes a seat next to him on the couch and they give each other a look of frustration about the situation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go right, things go wrong, Barry eats a lot of food and Eddie's mother visits.

The next day Oliver and Felicity were gone, Eddie had opted to remain neutral in his actions with Barry considering that he still had to work with him. Iris didn’t and thought a few days staying away would help ground her emotions. Barry was starting to think their attachment to him was really fading. They weren’t affectionate in the way that made him nervous that this was going to blow up in his face but it wasn’t the standoffish behavior that made him despondent.

He took it as a sign that karma was going to break even on this even and let their past issues go. That weekend he texted Iris knowing that she and Eddie both had off.

“ _ Raincheck Movie? Want to cash in? _ ” He texts her, it takes a few minutes for her to respond, he figures she’s talking with Eddie and it’s confirmed when she texts back.

“ _ Sounds great. Eddie says he refuses to see any horror movies. _ ” He pulls up the list of movies in theaters and scrolls through them.

“ _ There’s a dog movie. I think we can all agree on a dog movie _ .” He texts back and receives a thumbs up emoji in return.

“ _ There’s a 7 o’clock showing, we can get food beforehand.”  _ He smiles and then replies back. 

“ _ Chinese? Sounds good barring any disasters.” _

_ "Great, meet you at Mama Chow’s at Five?”  _ He confirms their plans and then continues on with his day.

A corner store robbery makes him fifteen minutes late but he makes it just as the hostess gets them a table. They get their food and discussion is casual, Iris complains about a co-worker and Eddie mentions a conversation with his mom. Barry mentions the weird things that Cisco wants to add to the suit. It's an easy conversation between them. They take their time and walk over to the theater and buy their tickets separately. Eddie insists on buying snacks because it’s part of the ‘movie going experience.’ He hands them each a box of candy and hangs on to the extra large popcorn before they head into the theater. 

Iris picks out the row and sits between and grabs the popcorn from Eddie. The movie is a good choice, a heartfelt family dog movie that has Barry wanting a dog by the end. Iris teases him about it because she knows him well enough.

After they see the movie the next few days are just everyday interactions and events for them. He works on cases with Eddie and Joe. Some days he has lunch with both of them and others he doesn’t. Iris pops into Star labs to help work up new plans or to lurk around for a new story to write. Barry pops in and out dealing with Metas and regular criminals and alternating out with Wally, when they aren’t training together, to do treatments. At this point his hormones are the only thing not back to normal.

It’s really problematic at this point because Caitlin has escalated the situation, alternating treatments and trying to see what will work for him. It also means that there are new side effects from either the drug itself or the fact that it doesn’t work and his body is making him sick. Eddie and Iris aren’t actually aware of it though, they seem to have backed off and Iris hadn’t shown up to any of his appointments lately but he had also been doing some of them later than usual. He has gone to work on some days he shouldn’t which causes Joe to hover over him on those days.

He walks into work rubbing at his face, a large cup of coffee to fight the fatigue he had been facing. Singh eyes him with a look that tells him Joe has talked to him as well. He gets nodded over to his office and Barry sighs as he complies with the silent order. Singh shuts the door behind him and then closes the blinds for privacy.

“How are you feeling?” Singh looks at him pointedly, not willing to take bullshit excuses that Barry frequently tries on him.

“Tired, It’s nothing I can’t handle Captain.” He tries to placate him.

“Even if you think you can handle it, doesn’t mean you can. Dr.Snow advised me that you started a more aggressive treatment plan and how it might affect you. Have you considered taking medical leave to focus on your treatment?” Singh sees the protest coming from a mile away and cuts him off.

“I know you don’t like it, but you may need it. I still think you came back too soon after your coma and even three years later you’re still struggling. I just want you to consider it but if your health gets worse I will make it mandatory, understood?”

He knows that he’s not doing it to punish him but he knows things will get complicated if it comes to it but he nods anyway.

“I understand.” Singh looks at the coffee in his hand.

“Have you had actual food yet or just coffee?” He knows him a little too well.

“I’m not doing too well stomach wise right now, I’m barely sipping on this coffee.” Barry finally admits to his boss and he knows what he’ll say next.

“Go home, I’ll take care of the paperwork, just make sure you eat something.” He leads Barry out of the office and as they do Eddie is right outside the door having a rather loud conversation with his mother. Somewhere in the back of his mind he remember that she had been mentioning a visit.

“You still should have told me you were coming today, I would have taken off mom.” He tells her as the door opens.

“Oh, please! I’m an adult, I don’t need you to drop everything just because I’m visiting. I may be here to visit you but I can do things on my own while you’re busy.” She is all but scolding him. Christine Thawne is all of five foot five and a feisty omega of a woman, sharing her blonde hair and blue eyes with her son. Barry had enjoyed her company when they had started to have the wedding festivities.

They were both the only immediate omega family members on both sides and she took a shine to him. She had tried to play matchmaker with him and had given a few alphas and betas his number and wingman him to some of the waiters at the wedding. Both him and Eddie had been decently embarrassed by the antics. Iris had been thoroughly amused on the other hand, being equally bad at the same antics.

“Ah, Barry, sweetie, how are you doing? Are you seeing anyone special?” Christine turned away from her son, ignoring him completely in favor of Barry.

“I’m doing fine and no, I’m not. How are you, though? Did you enjoy the trip here?” He asks her in return, she’s no less fierce than she was before.

“That’s good but it’s a shame no one’s caught your eye. They should be falling over themselves to date you.” She sweeps him into a hug. “Thank you for asking, also. Someone was more concerned that I didn’t warn him I was coming but yes I’m great and the trip was the same.”

Eddie is standing behind them flustered at his mother’s words.

“Hey, I was only stopping in real quick, I’m sure you’re hungry, do you want to join me for breakfast?” He asks her, Eddie is slightly relieved for a second and then concerned because he knows his mother.

“I would be happy to! We’ll see you later Eddie!” She waves goodbye to her son and takes off with Barry in tow.

She takes him to a restaurant that is an old fashioned diner that she claims is absolutely amazing. They pick a booth and a waitress brings them a menu. 

“So, Barry, honey, how are you really? Eddie mentioned you’re still having hormone treatments the last I asked and you’ve definitely lost some weight.” She cups his face in her hands and brushes his check with a thumb as she examines the exhaustion in his face.

He falters slightly, not expecting her to ask after him like that. It’s probably even more noticeable since it’s been a few months since they’d seen each other.

“My doctor is trying new treatments, more aggressive. It’s um-taking its toll a bit.” She has that weird ‘mom will make you confess’ effect over him. 

He’s suddenly very aware that this is Eddie’s mother and that Eddie and Iris really don’t know how his illness has progressed and worsened in the last few weeks. Caitlin's has been keeping it discreet and at minimum Cisco and Joe know, while Wally is aware that he needs him to handle more meta duties and Singh's on a need to know basis. Everyone else is out of the loop, specifically Iris and Eddie. Normally he would tell them but he can’t bring himself to.

“You haven’t told your sister or Eddie have you?” She can read it in his face.

“No, I haven’t. It’s complicated why and I don’t want to hurt them.” She studies him for a while with a look in her eye and then moves on from the subject while holding his hand comfortingly.

“What do you want to eat? What do you think you can handle?” It’s a gentle prodding question and he shrugs at it.

“I’m not sure, I’m trying to figure out what but my stomach is-” He leaves the sentence hanging, he has only had a few sips of his coffee and it’s at the edge of upsetting his stomach.

“You know what helped me when I couldn’t eat with my morning sickness, oatmeal. Get some fruit like bananas and a little brown sugar. It’ll get something in you and help your stomach.” She patted his arm and signaled the waitress back and ordered their food along with tea saying it would be better. She did in the meantime fill him in with stories about Eddie trying to make him feel better and laugh.

He felt okay about the oatmeal, even though it wasn’t hitting the calorie mark for him, he probably wouldn’t do much today besides rest once she made sure he had eaten it all. Christine sneakily paid the bill and then took him home.

“You’re a very good mother, I’m sure Eddie loves you a lot.” He comments as she helps him get off his jacket and shoes and starts nudging him to his bedroom.

“It’s just that instinct to nurture when kids are sick is all. Now which is your room?” She gets him to his room and lets him take over from there. Christine is gone by the time he slips under the covers and is out soon after.

He only wakes up periodically to eat a calorie bar and take medicine then falls asleep again. Later that evening he wakes up sweaty but not exhausted like this morning and takes a shower. He throws on a sweater and sweatpants before heading down the stairs where he can hear voices. Joe is making grandma Ester’s noodle dish and talking to Wally in the kitchen. Iris and Eddie are in the living room with his mother.

Iris looks up at his footsteps. “Barry, I didn’t know you were home?” She looks a little confused assuming that she had missed his flashing upstairs.

“Uh-yeah. I didn’t have work today.” He glances at Christine who smiles at him.

“Yeah, he took mom to breakfast this morning.” He mouths a word of thanks to Barry while she isn’t looking.

Joe finishes setting the table and calls everyone over to eat. Barry doesn’t feel as bad this time around and manages to have a second plate of the noodle dish which is his favorite. Christine looks pleased about it and they maintain a normal family dinner without any interruptions despite Eddie looking at his phone every time his mom tells another story.

When the evening calms down Barry notices the occasional worrying glance from Eddie’s mother when he interacts with Eddie or Iris and his stomach twists because he knows that he should tell them that he isn’t alright and it’s one of those days where he just wants to blurt out the whole truth but he holds himself back because he doesn’t want to ruin it all.

Christine ends up spending most of her time with Eddie and Iris though and it relieves some of the pressure of her being the worried mother hen that she is and trying to help Barry. He spends half of those days at appointments with Caitlin anyway and the other half talking with Iris because Eddie’s mother is hinting to them about when they’re going to have children. It’s an anxiety point for her, they were holding off on having them because of the whole Eobard situation and weren’t sure if they were going to have children yet. It was a sore point because yes they would love children but not if it may cause some form of Eobard to reappear.

It had filled him with guilt that they still couldn’t move on from Eobard. Once she had left there was relief on both sides for them. Barry hadn’t been able to say goodbye to her, he was busy as the flash, chasing after a meta practically all evening after work. The rest of them had one last family dinner without him and Wally before she headed back to keystone.

They’d gotten home just after midnight and said goodnight to each other and disappeared to bed. Barry had been out like a light and was really exhausted from the week which was when he heard his alarm he groaned. Sleep always went too fast when he had flash duties and work. He slapped the snooze button but it didn’t work. He tried again and thought maybe he was hitting the wrong button. Barry cracked his eyes open bleary and looked at the bright numbers  _ 3:01 AM.  _

He groaned, realizing it was his phone meaning it was probably dispatch calling him to a scene. He picked up his phone confirming the number hitting accept call. “Allen.”

“Sorry to wake you but you’re needed on 5th and Main for a homicide, Allen.” The dispatch worker apologized and he sighed.

“I’ll be there.” 

He hangs up the call and speeds around the room getting ready and zips down to grab what he sorely realizes is the last calorie bar and knows he doesn’t have much time for anything else. He heads to the crime scene and gets to processing it. He looks around and sees that it’s just older detectives and no rookies which pleases him but he’d still rather be anywhere else. The scene is a mess and even as a speedster it takes him hours to get everything processed correctly. Joe texts him as he finishes up. 

“ _ Called in or Meta? _ ” A regular question when Barry has left before him.

“ _ Called in at 3am. I’m tired and hungry.”  _ He complains to him, hoping he gets the hint and he does.

“ _ I’ll bring you something. Getting ready now. _ ” He smiles at the text.

“ _ Thanks.”  _

Barry goes to the station and catalogues the evidence before coming back down to search for Joe and see if he’s there yet. Eddie’s the only one there and he’s not pleased about it.

“Hey Barr, you okay?” Eddie looks over catching his movement.

“I’m tired, got called in at 3 am for a homicide. Joe’s bringing me food.” He responds looking toward the elevators and being disappointed.

“Tough, I’m sure he’ll be here soon. I should’ve stopped too probably.” He apologizes because he usually does bring him something but he didn’t.

Somebody else calls out to Barry from across the room.

“Hey, Allen, can you help process some of the guys from the drunk tank?” An officer calls him over.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Barry walks over and starts helping process that night's arrests of DUI and public intoxication. They all stink from alcohol and what was probably also vomit and pee. An officer brought the next one over and what happened next took all of thirty seconds but as a speedster it was forever.

The drunk alpha was doing clearly more than alcohol as he twitched as Barry took his hands to fingerprint them, the man’s nostrils flared when he did and it went from anger to something he couldn’t catch because the next thing he knew he had a hand on his throat and was pinned against the wall. Barry tried to phase out of it discreetly but found that his energy was really not forthcoming. A harsh set of lips clashing with his and he felt them bleed, while a hand started to mess with his clothes. He scratched and pushed his assailants face away and turned away.

The hand messing with his clothes came up and delivered a blow, then another, and gripped him by the wrist. He was trying to keep his lips away from him when a sudden yank freed him. He fell to the ground gasping and choking for air. He managed to open his eyes not even realizing he had shut them.

Barry looked to the side and saw a handful of cops restraining the man, one with a taser. Someone slid down next to him on the other side and his eyes turned to the movement. His eyes met blue and it took him a second to recognize it was Eddie. His hands were gently touching him and he was speaking soft reassuring words to him. Barry concentrated focusing on Eddie as he started to make out words.

“-got you, don’t worry he’s gone. Can you move? Barry, please respond.” The words are urgent and pleading.

“E-d-” He tries to say his name but it’s mangled by the croaking of his voice. There is some relief in his face when Barry responds to him, his eyes connect with Eddie’s while he focuses on getting oxygen back into his body. 

He starts to recover his strength and assess his injuries. There is definitely a mild concussion pounding on his head, his wrist also hurts, it's likely a sprain, his eye is throbbing and so is his nose, definitely a black eye but he’s not sure if his nose is broken. His lips sting and he might have split it. Most likely he’ll have bruising on his neck, it’s starting to feel like it.

“Can you sit up?” Eddie asks once Barry is more aware and focused.

“Maybe.” His voice is so hoarse he cringes. He grabs Eddie’s hand and starts to pull himself up and Eddie holds a hand against his back to steady him. His head spins and he leans forward to rest it on Eddie’s shoulder. He takes a deep breath and smells his scent, it’s always been very soothing to him like lavender but with something else he can’t pin down. It was odd to him because he didn’t expect that’s how it would smell for him. How people smelled to one another was based on genetics, dynamics, and bonds. He didn’t think their bond was like that. So Eddie being a constant soothing scent was odd to him.

He could also tell Eddie was flooding him with calming alpha hormones and protective scenting. Once Eddie could tell he was less dizzy, he spoke to him again.

“I’m going to pick you up, okay?” He slightly nodded into his shoulder and then Eddie scooped an arm under his knees and lifted him up. He carried him away and then sat him down on what turned out to be the couch in Singh’s office. They were alone while everyone handled everything else.

Eddie let Barry rest against him, comforting him, whispering reassuring words and rubbing soothing circles on his back and running his hands through his hair, still scenting him. Another CSI came in and took pictures of Barry’s injuries, scrapped under his nails and then lightly swabbed his lips. It was all evidence of the assault, to keep it all above board considering it was sometimes difficult to prosecute but it was unlikely in this case.

Singh eventually walked in to talk with them. “I called Joe and told him what happened, he was called to a scene just before everything happened, he’ll be here soon. Dr. Snow is here, I called her to check you over.”

He lets Caitlin into the office, who side glances Eddie before going straight to Barry. He lets her do her job while remaining quiet.

“We’ll go to Star labs and run some tests to make sure everything is okay.” She states more to the alpha than to Barry because he knows the routine.

Joe rushes into the precinct and spots them in the office and runs over. His immediate reaction is to scoop Barry into his arms, gently assessing his injuries, alpha pheromones fuming. Eddie gave them space because he knew full well what Joe was like when Barry got hurt. It was his first impression of him when they first became partners. Barry was in a coma and for the first nine months Joe was hurting from his parental bond with his foster son, unlike Iris’s bond with Barry it didn’t fade, instead it was a gaping wound for Joe who constantly had something of Barry’s nearby and suffered from the missing attachment to his son.

The day Barry had woken up Joe almost wouldn’t let him go.

He was in that same protective and territorial mood now, it felt rude to intrude. Caitlin had no qualms about that though.

“Joe let’s head to Star labs.” It was easy to get him to agree because he wanted Barry to be treated as soon as possible which was the best. They drove over to Star labs where Cisco had prepped the med bay for them. She did some quick x-rays to check that nothing was broken and then ran blood work for his hormone levels while she patched him up.

In the meantime Iris came running in, frantic much like Joe had been earlier but going straight for the med bay. Wally followed behind her having been the one to tell her which meant spending a good chunk of time calming her down from hysterics before bringing her there.

She immediately went to his side and pulled him towards her. Iris couldn’t help but sob as she got a look at his face. Barry of course was quick to try and comfort her. 

“It’s not that bad, Caitlin says I should be fine in an hour or so.” He really hated to see her cry.

“That doesn’t make it any better. Somebody hurt you and you still were hurt and-” Iris couldn’t help but be an emotional wreck over it because to her it looked bad no matter how fast he would heal.

“Come here.” Barry scooched over slightly and motioned for her to climb up on the bed. 

Eddie surprisingly hadn’t moved from his spot standing next to Barry’s bed despite the fact that Iris had come in but they disregarded it. Joe returned a little while later as she calmed down. He was carrying a couple of takeout bags with him.

“Sorry, I couldn’t bring you food as soon as I promised, I didn’t expect to get called to a scene after I texted and then everything.” He hands a bag over. “I got those breakfast burritos you like.”

“Thanks, Joe.” He opened up a burrito and began eating with some enthusiasm. After downing about four of them he nudged one in Iris’s face.

“I’m fine, you need it more than I do.” Iris tries to bat away the burrito.

“I know you were probably still getting ready for work when I got hurt and I can tell you’re hungry, eat, it’ll make me happy.” He gives her his best puppy dog eyes and she huffs grabbing the burrito.

“Fine.” 

He grins and turns to Eddie and hands him one as well before he eats another burrito himself. Caitlin walks in and looks pleased to see him eating. Barry sees the IV bag she’s carrying and grimaces a little.

“Eddie can you move a little?” Caitlin gestures to him and he steps aside as she starts setting it up. Barry sticks out his arm and she feels around for a vein before inserting the needle. She sets aside the bag of burritos for him knowing he won’t feel like them until later.

Once Caitlin moved away Eddie pulled a chair over and took his place next to the bed again. He reached over and grabbed Barry’s hand and started to rub the back with his thumb. The bruises on his face had already faded most of the way thankfully and no longer throbbed but now the treatment was kicking in and that made him feel like shit in general.

Caitlin stood off to the side talking quietly about side effects and signs to look out for. Wally had gone off with Cisco somewhere else in the lab. It was kind of strange that the three of them were so closely together while everyone was there. But at this point he was sick of worrying about how it looked and whatever consequences he had feared originally. Right now all he wanted was for them to be right next to him because they were making him feel better and he was just glad they were no longer at odds with each other.

Barry was half asleep by the time his treatment finished and Iris gently nudged him when Caitlin was finished unhooking him from the machine. 

“Come on Barr, you’ll feel better sleeping at home.” She helped him off the bed and he could feel Eddie at his side assisting him. He didn’t separate from them even when they got to the West house. Iris took time to arrange blankets on the couch for him and then settled him down letting him rest his head in her lap and he felt Eddie lift his legs and put them on his. Exhausted from practically no sleep and everything else that had happened her passed out while Iris ran her fingers through his hair.

He didn’t wake up until it was dark, the lights dim in the house and the TV was on low. Iris and Eddie were still on the couch with him, having adjusted slightly to be more comfortable. He moved slightly and they looked toward him.

“How are you feeling?” Eddie asks as he stretches his muscles.

“Okay, hungry.” He amends his statement as his body starts to wake up.

“I made grandma Ester’s noodles if you feel up to it.” Joe tells him, coming over into the living room. Barry nods and Joe disappears into the kitchen.

He sits up, adjusting the blankets to free his arms and then rubs his eyes. Joe comes back with a large plate of noodles and he eats them passively. He eats most of the plate before setting it down.

“Do you want more or?” Iris asks him and he shakes his head.

“No, can I just get some water?” Joe goes back into the kitchen and quickly returns with the water, he takes a few sips and then sets it down. Iris shifts closer and rubs his back.

“I can make something else if your stomach isn’t feeling up to it.” Joe suggests but he waves him off.

“I think I’m just going to watch TV for a little bit.” Eddie hands him the remote and he changes the channel to a comedy movie. 

Joe sticks around for about two more hours before heading to bed telling Barry to let him know if he needs him. Eddie and Iris stay with him on the couch and he knows they’re getting tired but he doesn’t want them to leave and they sense his anxiety.

“You okay? Do you need anything, I can tell you want to say something.” Iris doesn’t miss much with him and Eddie has learned from her.

“It’s stupid.” He mumbles because he doesn’t want to admit what he actually wants.

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not.” Eddie tries to reassure him and he looks at both of them and then down at his feet.

“I don’t want to leave.” He says quietly to them, which only confuses them.

“Leave? The couch? I don’t understand.” Iris looks toward Eddie to see if he understands any better but he looks just as confused.

“You guys.” He finally gets the words out. “I don’t want to leave you guys, you’ve been making me feel better and I know you want to go to bed. It’s stupid.”

Eddie and Iris look at each other while Barry continues to look down. They have a conversation without saying a word before finally Eddie speaks up.

“Would you like to sleep with us, I mean, it’s not like we haven’t before. It’s just sleeping, if that’s why you’re embarrassed.” The wording sticks with him a bit but he shakes it off.

“Yeah, it’s just your scents have been helping me and I uh-” He’s trying to make the situation better but Iris stops him.

“It’s alright, come one.” She pulls him up off the couch and turns off the TV and starts leading them upstairs, Eddie dutifully following. Iris stops at his room and grabs the t-shirt and pajama bottoms he uses for bed and some extra blankets. She then grabs his hand again and goes to her room. She hands him the clothes and then adds the blankets to the bed.

“Go on, change.” She says when he hasn’t moved. He awkwardly turns around, feeling self conscious and changes minus superspeed to give them privacy as well. When he turns around they’ve gotten changed. Eddie is in boxers and a t-shirt and Iris has a long shirt on that he’s pretty sure she stole from him.

He stands there awkwardly but then Iris shoves him into the bed and arranges him between them. 

“See, fine.” She says to him as they move to adjust.

He still can’t help but feel anxious. Eddie recognizes it in his scent and releases some calming pheromones for her, he settles down almost immediately. They aren’t opposed to getting close either. Pressing up against him. Eddie flings an arm around him and Iris. Barry tenses recalling how he had woken up like that at the start of this mess.

“It’s okay Barry, relax.” Eddie whispered to him and Barry tried to make a more conscious effort to do so but he was still nervous.

So Eddie presses his face into Barry’s neck and started nuzzling him. His body starts to melt into the touch and he feels Iris move under his head to nuzzle at his throat. It creates a soothing sensation that has him closing his eyes, the feeling pleasant and hypnotic. He slips off to sleep again not much longer afterwards.

The morning comes around and it’s barely light out when Barry feels himself waking up. He doesn’t open his eyes immediately basking in the warmth the alpha and beta are giving off, their scents clinging to him. Eddie has his nose buried in his neck still, breathing softly against him and his arm is slung around his waist under his shirt that has ridden up partly, his hand having found Barry’s and is on top of his splayed across his stomach.

Iris has tangled her legs with his and wrapped around his midsection as well. Barry feels at peace with them and lays there taking time to enjoy the moment. Slowly the sun rises and begins to come across the room, Iris moves to block what lands in her face, covering it in his chest. For a while that’s the only movement from them.

Downstairs, Barry hears movement he suspects is Wally and then he hears Joe head down and start making coffee in the kitchen. Eddie begins moving, waking up at his regular time, his hand on Barry’s moving in slow motions. Finally he peels an eye open and looks down at Barry’s face, whose own eyes are still fluttering awake.

“Morning.” The soft greeting is welcomed and they just lay there reciprocating small touches until Iris finally stirs awake fully and greets them as well. It takes a good ten minutes to pull themselves out of bed and it’s half because Barry is starting to feel hungry and half because Iris’s arm is numb from being under Barry. They wash up and then wander downstairs.

Joe gives them a look but says nothing. Barry passes on coffee which they shrug off considering the amount of sleep he had. Eddie doesn’t need any prompt to start making breakfast and makes sure the first plate goes to Barry, who is thankful that he can enjoy it instead of feeling awful from his treatment yesterday.

“Hey Barry, do you think you’d be alright for a while if Eddie and I go to a crime scene?” Captain Singh said it’s a potential meta but I can get Cisco to go with another detective.” Joe asks him, still worried about how his health was going to be in reaction to the alpha attacking him yesterday. Barry waves off the concern though.

“I’ll be fine, if I really need someone I’ll call Caitlin.” Iris then follows up on the statement.

“I planned on working from home anyway, I’ll stay with him. Go and figure out if there’s a meta or not, the city needs to be protected still.” She reassures them and once they finish breakfast they head off to work.

“So, what do you want to do today?” She asks Barry not long after they left. “We can pretty much do anything you’re up for.”

He takes a good moment to consider his options and then a thought pops into his head. 

“Can we make cookies? I have mom’s recipes upstairs and I just feel like I need a little piece of her right now.”

Her face softens at the words and she grabs his hands comfortingly.

“That’s a great idea, as long as I’m only in charge of mixing and cutting out cookies because otherwise I’m useless and I’ll ruin the cookies.” Iris jokes with him but he comes to her defense in her self pity. 

“You’re not that bad, your mac and cheese is great.” He counters and Iris rolls her eyes.

“It’s the only thing I can make, Barr.”

Barry goes upstairs and retrieves the box with his mother’s recipes and goes through them with Iris, picking out his favorite recipes. They do a quick inventory of ingredients and ultimately end up making a quick trip to the store to avoid running out of them.

Iris still turns out to be a decent assistant helping him with the cookies. They pick a food fight and fling flour at each other at one point and call a cease fire when Barry cheats by tickling Iris on her sides. A good amount of cookie dough is consumed before it makes it to the oven but they end up making more and eating more.

The kitchen starts to get overheated after they do nearly a dozen batches which makes Barry feel dizzy and Iris takes him to the couch to sit while she takes the batch out of the oven and turns it off, then puts away the unused dough for a later time. Iris brings him a glass of water that he takes slow sips from and then sets aside. 

“Why don’t you lay down for a bit, you can put your head in my lap and watch a movie while I work on my laptop.” She suggests to Barry and he pulls up netflix while she gets her laptop.

She comes back with it and sets it down on the end table and lets Barry put his head down while he chooses a stand up special to watch. Once he feels better, he munches on the cookies while Iris pauses doing her work and ends up making the mac and cheese for a late lunch. They clean up the mess they made in the kitchen and then head back into the living room and end up cuddling on the couch until Joe and Eddie come back from work.

“It smells good in here.” Joe remarks as they step through the door. “What’s you make?” He says noticing some remnants of flour still left from their fight.

“Cookies. I used my mom’s recipes.” Barry responds from the couch, not moving from the nest of blankets they’ve huddled under.

“Well, I hope you saved room for dinner, we brought Pizza.” Eddie speaks up and draws his attention to the boxes he’s holding.

“I’m always up for food, especially pizza, you have my favorite right?” Barry asks him as he sets the pizzas on the dining room table.

“Pepperoni, Olives, and Jalapenos.” Eddie confirms and he is quick to untangle himself from the blankets and make his way over.

Barry is pleased that today most of the side effects he’s been dealing with haven’t reared their ugly heads and he feels well enough to eat his favorite foods while staying away from coffee still just to be safe. He also got a good amount of time with Iris and Eddie which had become less of a scary thought to him in the past few months. 

Barry is thrown off slightly when they get ready to leave though. He had almost forgotten that they didn’t live there and that they most likely needed to go home where all their necessities were. Iris picks up on the disappointment in his face and pulls him in for a big hug.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” She says trying to comfort him and he nods trying to conceal the emotions he’s feeling.

Eddie follows up with a hug as well and then they’re gone. Barry ignores the look Joe gives him.

Iris and Eddie get back to their apartment and it feels empty. Eddie sets the plate of cookies Barry had given them on the counter and takes a look at Iris who looks despondent.

“I feel like we shouldn’t have left him.” She says to him suddenly as she looks around their apartment.

“I felt the same way this morning.” Eddie admits as well eyes meeting with his mate. “ I couldn’t help but think about how he said he didn’t want us to leave him last night and that we made him feel better.”

Iris can’t help but admit that as well, when Barry had said it the words wouldn’t leave her head, even as they woke up the next morning with Barry in bed next to them.

“You know, I read at one point that hormone sickness is improved with bonding. I’ve been thinking a lot about how much it would help Barry if he was mated and he would recover finally from everything that happened with the lightning but-” She stops, not exactly sure what she was going to say actually. Part of her knows that she wants to say that she doesn’t want to see him with a mate and the other part says she’s afraid about what that means to her.

“I’ve thought about it too.” Eddie says unexpectedly as he sits down on the couch. “I think our feelings have changed on some things and that we might want to reconsider it.”

He doesn’t actually say the words but Iris knows what they’ll be and sits down next to him.

“Do you think we should try for a triad with Barry?” Iris finally says it out loud and it feels like a huge relief as the words finally come out.

“I think he wants to but he’s afraid that we’ll reject him because we already rejected him before and he won’t take the first step even if it hurts him because he’s more worried about us than him, which I guess comes with being a hero.” Eddie puts his head in his hands and rubs his face. “I don’t know.”

Eddie lifts his head out of his hands and just stares over at the cookies that Barry had given them. He imagines Barry being in their apartment making the cookies, Barry curling up with them on the couch, Barry in their bed and just being with them in all different ways. It doesn’t feel out of place and he supposes because they’ve done most of these things with Barry already, the only difference being that it wasn’t at their apartment.

He’s not opposed to the idea, in fact he wants it so badly he can't describe it. It’s not that he wants an omega as an alpha who maybe wants the balance that a triad would provide, it’s the fact he wants Barry because of who it is and it scares him a little. They’ve fallen in love with him and it’s a scary and new feeling to love someone who isn’t bonded to them.

“I want it and I’m terrified because it could ruin everything with him.” He looks over at Iris finally and he feels through their bond that she feels the same.

“I think it’s a little too late for that, I think in some respect we already started to claim him as ours.” He hates that she’s so brutally honest sometimes because Eddie would be in denial a while longer. “I think we should discuss whether or not we want to formally court Barry.”

“Joe’s gonna kill me if I mate both of you.” Iris smacks him on the arm.

“He will not.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go very wrong, very fast.

The next few days are full of discussion as to how to go about the whole situation. Their interactions change slightly with Barry as they start to test boundaries with him to see if he pulls away so that they can back off if they don’t think it will go well and can bail on their plans without anyone getting hurt. 

But Barry isn’t put off by their actions and it eases them a bit. Joe, however, senses that they’re up to something which throws Iris for a loop because it seems like he was expecting this in some way. He hadn’t had any doubts about her loving Eddie since the singularity but this wasn’t doubt. At least she didn’t think it was doubt. As well as her dad knew her, she also knew him and her reporter instincts were telling her that he knew something she didn’t and that he has suspicions when she asks him to go to lunch with her.

“So what is it that you want to talk about.” Joe doesn’t waste his time beating around the bush. He’s been in the middle of this for longer than Iris realizes and he knows that his daughter doesn’t just ask him out to lunch like this, so when they sit down at a secluded table with their food he finally speaks up.

She looks like she’s been caught in the cookie jar even though she’d been expecting this.

“I wanted to talk about Barry.” Iris can’t help but be vague because she’s worried about how this will go, about what her father might already know that she doesn’t.

“What about Barry?” The question is just as guarded and they pause for a moment looking at each other. Iris knows he’s waiting for her to respond and she figures it’ll be easier to say it outright instead.

“Eddie and I are considering courting Barry.” The words make everything tense up between them. 

Iris watches her father but Joe won’t make any response. He’s holding back on himself. On one hand he knows everything that has been going on and on the other hand he has been fearing this type of situation coming to fruition. He doesn’t want to give it away.

“You two have talked about this.” It’s the most neutral statement he can give that can move this conversation forward without causing abrupt chaos.

“We’ve been talking about it a lot, I think we’ve been avoiding the topic for a while until a lot happened recently. We realized that we’ve been getting jealous over other alphas and betas interacting with Barry and how protective we’ve gotten and that it’s hard to lie to ourselves about it.” Iris opens up about the feeling they’d been having.

“How long have you two felt like this?” Joe asks her but he feels he already knows the answer.

“It’s been months. We tried ignoring it but we can’t” Joe bites his lip because he wants to bring it up but he knows he can’t. Iris and Eddie are completely unaware of the night that suddenly triggered all of this change Caitlin had said the feeling that night had caused would have disappeared after a few weeks as long as there wasn’t a recurrence, which there hadn’t been. But this was something different, he could tell through his own bond with them.

The situation was messy. He didn’t know if the feelings were genuine or if they were caused by the attachment disorder Caitlin mentioned. At the same time it could be the real feelings Iris had for Barry before his coma trampled all over it, they had just gotten back to normal maybe. Then there were Eddie’s feelings to consider, were they something that developed naturally or had his bond with Iris influenced it? Eddie had become family to him after much stubbornness and he didn’t want to see this go wrong.

Iris wouldn’t have come to him over this matter if she wasn’t struggling over the matter either. He really couldn’t foresee a future outcome where this didn’t come out and hurt them. The odds of it not coming to the surface were greatly decreasing and something had to happen.

“I think you should hold off for now, just a little while and when it comes to it you really need to talk about this with Barry, not about this exactly but your past and all the things you’ve buried after you got together with Eddie.” It’s the only advice he can give her without outing everything but also buy him time to talk to Caitlin and then try and convince Barry to talk about it.

Iris wants to tell him that she doesn’t want to wait but she holds back. The idea of it all is very new still and he’s right that they haven’t talked about everything that happened between them and that they can’t move forward until she does.

“I think you’re right. I should talk to him about our issues first, shouldn’t I. It’s kind of long overdue, for a while it was an elephant in the room between the three of us and we’ve forgotten about it.” Iris sort of admits a slight defeat and picks at her food. “Would you mind pretending to be late to family dinner on Friday so that I can talk with him without scaring him off.” She asks him finally and he hesitantly agrees.

After their lunch, Joe goes to Star labs to get an update on the current metahuman issue. He’s mostly silent as Barry and the others discuss the earlier confrontation and what evidence they’ve gathered. Once they’ve come up with a plan, they all go off figuring out their individual parts and Joe pulls Caitlin aside.

“I need to talk to you about Barry.” He says to her and he feels her enter into concerned doctor mode.

“Is he having more side effects?” Caitlin is quick to guess but he holds up his hand to pause her train of thought.

“It’s about Iris and Eddie, they’ve developed feelings for Barry and I’m not entirely sure it has nothing to do with what happened between them. Are you sure they stopped showing attachment from that?” He quietly whispers, unsure if someone will come looking for them. 

“Are you sure? I tested all of them afterwards and confirmed all the attachment bonding hormones were gone with all three of them. It was hard enough to check the first time without making them suspicious.” Caitlin is shocked at his statement but she can’t deny that things had changed between the three.

“Iris told me that her and Eddie have been having feelings for months and that they want to ask to try for a triad.” Joe informs her of the news he received earlier. “It’s going to come out one way or another and I don’t know if he’ll be able to handle it.”

“He’s going to have to talk to them and tell them, you need to talk to him.” It’s the same conclusion he had come to earlier, everything was going to come crumbling down.

That night he waits for Wally to go to bed for the night before he decides to talk to Barry and he knows that he has gotten the hint that he wants to talk to him about something important. 

“Barry, you need to tell Iris and Eddie about what happened that night.” He says it abruptly and Barry’s head whips up to look at him so fast there might have been some speedforce behind it. He looks at him like he’s crazy.

“Nope, not doing that. She’ll hate me forever. Why are you even suggesting that?” He immediately dismisses the notion entirely but Joe’s not having it.

“I was talking with Iris and some things are changing and if you don’t tell her before it’ll come out eventually, it will come out and you’ll be more hurt then.” He’s more assertive this time.

“No! We’re done talking about this.” Barry flees from the house with Joe calling out for him before he can say anything else.

He spends a good hour running before he comes to a stop, exhausted and panting, resting his hands on his knees. He doesn’t want to go back to the house where Joe is waiting and he heads to Cisco’s knowing he’s knocking on the apartment door pretty late.

“Barry? What are you doing here, it's almost one in the morning?” Cisco answers the door in confusion.

“I had a fight with Joe. I don’t want to go home right now.” He admits to the beta, who just sighs and lets him in. He gives him a blanket and pillow then heads back to his own bed. 

Barry doesn’t fall asleep for a while and he can’t help but be afraid about what Joe had implied. What had Iris said to him? He sleeps uneasily and wakes up to a series of missed calls and texts when he turns on his phone.

Nothing overly concerning, besides Joe asking where he is and telling him they need to talk and one from Wally telling him that Joe was upset. He sends a short text back and hits the mute for his notifications for texts. Cisco makes breakfast which he eats half heartedly and Cisco throws some concerning looks his way but he remains silent.

To some benefit he still has time off work so he doesn’t have to see him too soon but then Friday rolls around and it’s family dinner night at the west house. He can’t baill on it because Iris will ask why and he figures that he won’t fight Barry on this in front of them. He shows up late as usual and takes a deep breath before opening the door.

“Hey.” Iris greets him from the couch and he is both relieved and stressed about it.

“Hey, where’s Joe and Eddie?” He says looking around for a sign of them in the oddly quiet house.

“They’re going to be late, work.” She explains and he nods trying to figure out what to say.

“If they’re going to be late, why don’t we order pizza, we can order from coast city and I’ll pick it up.” Barry suggests and then goes into the kitchen to look for the menu. He hears Iris mumble some sort of agreement while he looks.

Iris sits in the living room trying to figure out how to start the conversation she wants to have with Barry and he calls out to her from the kitchen. “Do you know where the menu is?” He asks as she hears him flipping through papers.

“I don’t know. I think I have a picture of it on my phone since you keep losing it.” She starts scrolling through her photo album on her phone, looking to see where she saved it and she scrolls through a photo catching her eye. She doesn’t remember taking it.

It’s from the club she and Eddie went to a while back and Barry is in the photo with them. She doesn’t remember him being there. She moves to the next photo and he looks vaguely drunk in the way she remembers him getting after they celebrated his college graduation, but he couldn’t get drunk anymore? At least unless he had super concentrated alcohol, which he’s tested out a few times. They hadn’t worked well but she vaguely recalls Cisco trying a new formula that she never heard anymore about.

She continues scrolling through them, they’re just drunk selfies. Suddenly she stops and the pictures change. They’re no longer regular selfies. They’re fully nude, all three of them drunk at her and Eddie’s apartment, in their bed. There’s no way of mistaking what’s happening in the photo and she remembers none of it.

Suddenly, Barry is coming up behind her and she whips her head around to look at him.

“You find it?” He asks her about the menu and she can’t talk. He looks over her shoulder and freezes. At first surprise and shock is on his face and the worry and fear and then he’s terrified. She can’t say anything and he looks at her and once again takes off from the west house.

Iris sits on the couch, frozen and she has a million questions going through her mind. Did Barry remember? His face said he did. Why didn’t he say anything? Barry wouldn’t take advantage would he? Would she or Eddie, because all she remembers was being hungover the next morning and they had been blackout drunk. All she can remember is Barry being sick. Was he really sick or hiding from them? No, that was when he started getting worse. Was it because of that? 

She racks her brain on health information she read on hormone sickness that she had read. Sex could abruptly change hormone levels, so he would have to go see Caitlin after no matter what. Shit, did that mean Caitlin knew? Dad had called in for Barry so he might too. Shit, that’s what her father knew. He’d been withholding something from her when they talked at lunch.

The more she thought about it, she realized he knew and was watching how they acted when they were together. Who else knew? Was it real? She’s still confused and stuck in her spot on the couch when her dad and Eddie walk in.

“Where’s Barry?” Joe asked hesitantly and that’s when she starts moving again.

“Did you know?” The question is directed at him and he knows what it’s about.

“He told you.” It confuses Iris but she gets her confirmation.

“He didn’t. I found out.” She looks towards Eddie, who is bewildered.

“We need to go home.” Iris says flatly and heads to the car and waits for Eddie.

The drive home is silent and when they get home Iris paces for a while before Eddie finally asks.

“Iris, what happened?” She looks torn and opens up and goes through the photos back to the beginning and then hands it to Eddie.

“Just swipe, you’ll see.” She sees the same confusion evolve to shock.

“I don’t remember any of that. Does he? What did he say?” Eddie is asking her and she doesn’t know.

“He freaked out, took off, didn’t say a word. I have no idea what he knows but he knew enough because dad definitely knew.” She starts to get angry because she hates when her dad lies to her and she wonders if he told Barry to keep it a secret. She’s frustrated because she doesn’t have any answers and she starts to go looking for them.

She texts Cisco first. “ _ When was the last time you gave Barry that concentrated alcohol formula? _ ” She asks him straight out.

A confused text answers. “ _ A few months ago? Barry and Wally had a guys night out, why? _ ”

She ignores the question. “ _ How well did it work?” _

“ _ Wally said he was hungover the next morning. _ ” The first answer is that Barry was likely just as drunk as them.

She texts Wally next. “ _ Do you remember what happened the night you and Barry got drunk?” _

“ _ Uh? I had to leave and fight a meta half drunk. I think he went home, had a bad day the next morning. _ ” Wally isn’t very helpful but she’s not sure where to go next and turns to Eddie.

“Do you remember how Barry acted the first time you saw him after?” She asks and Eddie takes a moment.

“He was closed off, spent all day in his lab and he was surprised when I brought him lunch. Now I know why, probably expected me to be avoiding him too.” Eddie’s just having an internal crisis about the whole thing much like Iris. He looks back at the photos on the phone, the last one has Barry passed out at the end of their ‘activities’ and Eddie is pressing a kiss to his forehead. He’s trying desperately to recall any of it.

“We started acting differently too afterwards.” He mentions and he knows she thought of it as well.

“He started getting sicker too.” She mentions to Eddie, who grimaces when she brings it up.

“We need to talk to him.” Iris calls him, Eddie calls him, it all goes to voicemail. They send texts that are gently worded but they go unread so Iris calls Wally.

“Hey Iris, what’s up?” He answers her call.

“Wally, I need you to go look for Barry. Something happened and he won’t talk to us. I think he’s scared, can you please make sure he’s alright?” She pleads with her brother.

“Okay, I’ll let you know when I find him.” Wally hangs up with his sister and then tunes into the speedforce reaching out for Barry as he starts speeding through the city looking for him.

One benefit of the speedforce was that it connected him and Barry in a unique way other than just being speedsters. He had a better sense of how Barry felt and it made it easier to locate Barry through their bond. It takes a few minutes to figure out where he is but eventually he comes close enough to sense he’s on the edge of central. He stops and can smell him nearby and calls out.

“Barry! It’s Wally. I just want to make sure you’re okay.” He hears movement on his left and moves toward a wooded area. He sees Barry curled up on himself at the base of a tree and he cautiously approaches him.

“Barry, I’ve gotten a couple of questions and concerned calls about something going on with you.” Wally doesn’t touch him and waits to get a response.

“I messed up Wally, now Iris is going to hate me.” He’s shaking and tears are streaming down his face.

“She sounded worried about you when she called, I don’t think she hates you.” Wally tries to reassure him but Barry doesn’t seem to believe him.

“Does it have to do with that night we went drinking?” Wally had had his suspicions for a while now that something had happened after he left Barry that night and Iris’s questions only seemed to confirm it. The question caused Barry to tense in response.

“I messed up. I slept with Iris and Eddie because I got drunk and woke up the next morning having no idea what had happened. I was in their bed and I panicked and I ran before they woke up. I just wanted to forget because they didn’t remember but then Iris found photos and she knows now. She’s going to hate me.” 

Wally can’t get Barry’s attention after that he just keeps muttering that Iris is going to hate him and he can tell Barry is experiencing a very bad drop and starts to text Caitlin.

“ _ Where are you? _ ” He can’t actually tell if the response takes forever but he’s glad it comes.

“ _ About to leave Star labs, Why? _ ” She texts back.

“ _ Stay. I’m bringing Barry, it’s an emergency. _ ” He doesn’t wait for a response and instead coaxes Barry to move enough so he can bring him to Star labs. Once he does he speeds him over to where Caitlin is waiting.

“What’s wrong?” She goes to Barry’s other side and guides him over to the bed. She sees the tear streaked cheeks and the pit in her gut knows what happened. 

Wally hovers nearby but let’s Caitlin do her job.

“He’s having a drop.” 

Caitlin is quick to start administering the right medication and taking blood samples. She runs several tests while monitoring his vitals but isn’t pleased with the results.

“He’s just getting worse again. I think I need to contact Harry, maybe he’ll have an idea on how to help. This has been going on too long.” Once she deems Barry stable enough she goes to send a message to Harry.

Barry has nodded off to sleep, clearly exhausted and Wally takes out his phone to text Iris.

“ _ I found him. _ ” The reply is almost immediate.

“ _ Thank god, is he alright? _ ” Iris texts back as she tells Eddie.

“ _ I don’t know, I took him to Caitlin. He’s a mess. He told me what happened. _ ”

“ _ What did he say? _ ” Wally almost doesn’t want to respond but he also feels like they need to stop hiding everything.

“ _ He says that he doesn’t remember anything but waking up in your bed the next morning and that he freaked out and ran. He’s terrified about what you’ll think of him. _ ” 

Iris can’t help but freeze as she reads the text. She can’t imagine herself ever hating Barry. Never. It didn’t matter what happened between them. He has to know that right?

“ _ I need to talk to him, where are you guys? _ ” Iris texts back ready to head out the second she gets a response.

“ _ I don’t think that’s a good idea. He had a drop, give him some time before you try and talk to him. _ ” 

That stresses her out more because Barry isn’t doing well and she wants to comfort him but a bitter part says he’s right because she doesn’t know how either of them will react when they see each other again. She concedes to Wally’s points and steps away from her phone to look at her mate.

Eddie watches her anxiously as she looks away from her phone.

“What did he say?” He’s shaking his leg in nervousness as he waits for a response.

“Barry told him what happened. That he was drunk and woke up the next morning and realized what happened and freaked out. He’s worried how it’s going to change things between us.” She finally tells him. They take a moment of silence looking at each other.

“Is this going to change things?” He asks the question haunting her.

“I don’t know.” Is all Iris can say to him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is just angst and moping.

Barry doesn’t come back to work that week but Eddie can’t help but keep looking for him and he can’t really look Joe in the eyes.

Eddie and Iris are trying to piece together what little evidence they have of that night. Trying to figure out how much it affects how they actually feel about Barry. Iris might have gone to Caitlin and basically interrogated her about the attachment bond and how everything affected them and Barry. It left her more conflicted than she was previously. 

Some of the feelings were because they slept with Barry but what she doesn’t understand is how they got to the point of sleeping with Barry. 

Eddie talks about the different studies that say you wouldn’t do anything you weren’t capable of doing sober. That alcohol lowers your inhibitions but not your morals. It’s why drinking doesn’t excuse crimes, Eddie says. It’s a talking point for them, on and off they discuss whether or not maybe they’d been ignoring their feelings for Barry prior to this.

“We were the ones that brought up the triad originally when Barry tried to make amends. It was a misunderstanding on our part but what if we thought about it for a reason?” Eddie is the first to mention it. They had been the ones to abruptly push Barry away first.

“Were we too scared to notice?” Iris suggests to him. “ Then all that stuff with reverse flash, he pushed everyone away. Just knowing he was your descendant made things difficult for a while, made everything muddled. Things were strained for so long.”

“When did things start to get better again? I know at one point we weren’t avoiding each other so much.” Eddie asks, trying to think back on events.

“Zoom broke his back. He was in a coma for three days. I remember being terrified that he wasn’t going to wake up and that I thought everything we’d been pushing each other away for was just so meaningless.” She’d probably prayed to every god and promised Barry everything he wanted to wake up.

“I remember Zoom holding him in the precinct, he didn’t even look like he was breathing.” Eddie recalls the night, shivering, they had softened the boundaries they put up with how they treated Barry, but there was a fear that lingered until Zoom was defeated. It kept Barry at arm’s length, hesitant. He desperately wants to know what those feelings really meant.

Barry doesn’t return to work the following week either but the Flash shows up and fights Metas and stops a handful of crimes. They would be lying if they weren’t lingering around Star labs hoping for him to stop in, even for just a flash. It doesn’t happen and they know why.

They don’t know what the outcome will look like and how it will affect them. Barry has no emotional strength to with that so he continues to avoid them.

Harry had come over from Earth-2 with little notice once Caitlin told him what was going on. He un-admittedly worried over team flash and owed them for helping stop Zoom and rescue his daughter. He surprisingly had experience with hormone sickness, admitting that he suffered from it after the loss of his mate. Harry had struggled with it for quite a while that he had gotten frustrated with his doctors and started to research and do his own experimental treatments. Afterward he’d improved greatly with his own treatment.

“Unfortunately, people can be biased when it comes to science and it literally harms the development of science because some knotheaded scientist can’t be bothered to understand that alphas are different from betas and omegas biologically and they need to account for it in studies but no that’s too much work.” The sarcasm dripped heavily from his lips. Harry couldn’t help but rant about it as he worked with Caitlin on Barry’s new treatment.

“I bet you they would lose their minds if they found out the flash was an omega.” Barry might have been slightly egging him on but it was rare to see Harry not be so clinical.

“Probably the same way people lose their minds when they find out I’m an omega.” He snorted. “Science would be better off if we could just completely eliminate our designations and genders from the equation.”

“Somebody would still find a way to screw that up, trust me.” Caitlin says as she walks back over to them with a sheet of results. “Your adjusted formula is working way better than anything I’ve tried but Earth-2 is also ahead of us on some things so.” They take a moment to assess the results from his blood work with short mutters of words before they readdress him.

“So your levels have started to improve greatly now that we have your dosage adjusted with the right medications according to your metabolism. We’ve worked up a general timeline of about three months before you’ll be good enough to start producing the correct hormones on your own. Around that time you should have your first heat since your coma and then we’ll ween you off the medication over another three months.” 

Caitlin announces to him preening practically now they’ve finally gotten his health under control. She walks off after to update his records and leaves him with Harry.

“So, I notice that you’re avoiding Mrs.West-Thawne and Mr.Thawne, no one is willing to mention what happened but considering the circumstance when I arrived, I believe that it’s a personal nature, am I correct?” Barry is thrown by the sudden question.

“You’re not usually one to ask about something like that.” It’s entirely defensive when he says it and he knows that and Harry gives him a knowing look.

“Admittedly, I was not in the best spot of emotional states when we met and neither was your team. We clashed but I’m still human, I can still show concern and empathy. I’m also a father and I know that you lost yours recently and the only other father you have would be in a complicated situation of wanting the best for both of his children, so I thought I would offer an extra prospective that maybe a little less conflicted so that you can maybe have an idea of what’s really best for you.” 

It’s very logical from that perspective and very Harry. He’s being open in a way that’s new for both of them and he’s impressed. It’s still hard for Barry to deal with the situation he’s put himself in, with a sigh he resigns himself.

“A few months ago, Wally wanted to help me destress and took me out drinking with this super concentrated alcohol Cisco whipped up because of my metabolism and it worked too well and I got so drunk I didn’t remember sleeping with Iris and Eddie. I just woke up the next morning and freaked out and left. Then they didn’t remember until Iris found pictures on her phone. I just fucked up everything.” It’s the third time he’s admitted to what happened and he still doesn’t feel any less guilty.

“You shouldn’t be blaming yourself.” Harry says in response and Barry looks at him like he’s crazy.

“Why’s that? I did the one thing I’ve been trying to avoid and it was acting on my feelings for Iris.” He can’t see how he shouldn’t be blaming himself.

“Well for one, there were three people involved so at most you have a third of the fault. They chose to sleep with you as much as you did. Hell, I’ll even give some blame to Ramon because he’s the one that gave you the messed up alcohol in the first place and I assume Wally didn't stick to the buddy system when drinking with you, so really, you’re least at fault.” He fills out his logic for Barry.

“I’m still the one that had feelings that led to this mess in the first place.” He objects to Harry’s words but the scientist is a step ahead of his excuses.

“So? You can’t tell me that even though you were drunk, that some of it can’t not be mutual. Maybe it was a drunk decision but it was one that involved more than one equally drunk person. They have to take responsibility for their own actions. Normally the expression is it takes two to tango, well in this case it takes three. You can’t take the full blame, you were drunk too. They don’t get to walk away from the fact that they were drunk and slept with you, regardless of your feelings beforehand because you seem to have walked away with the most damage emotionally, whether you admit it or not.”

Harry’s all worked up by his own speech and he’s not budging with his stance on the matter.

“You make it sound like it’s easy to forgive myself for messing up.” He can’t help but have a tone that sounds full of defeat as he looks at Harry.

“I didn’t say it would be. But right now you need to get better and the only way you can do that is to start taking care of yourself first. It’s why Captain Singh signed off on your medical leave. So focus on that first. Get better, stop beating yourself up because it’s not helping you. When you’re better you can figure out everything else. What other people want doesn’t matter right now. It’s time to stop shouldering all the weight no matter how much you feel you should.” 

He sits there and lets his words really sink in and contemplates how it would all play out. Barry can’t help but feel it’s still avoiding the real issue at hand, but he remembers how Harry said he was saying this as a father.

“Is this the advice you would give Jesse?” Barry asks suddenly after a long moment of silence.

“I would. She comes first always to me. Of course, I would also probably kill whoever slept with her while she was drunk but in this scenario that would just get me shot by West, so we’re not going that route.” It gets a chuckle out of Barry at least.

“But, yes as a father, if you want my advice. Take care of yourself first. You’re allowed to let other people manage their own responsibilities when things get messy. You can choose to remove yourself from the equation.”

Barry goes home to the west house and he feels better having talked with Harry. Dinner is just with Joe and Wally, who are still being cautious around him about Iris and Eddie, who’ve not been at the house since they found out. It does however, make things quiet at dinner so Barry decides that he’ll talk about what he wants to.

“So, Harry and Caitlin said that my treatment is finally working. They think it’ll be about three months before my cycle is back to normal.” Joe hums and nods in approval.

“That’s good news.” Wally comments trying to helpfully provide conversation.

“Harry also gave me some good advice about taking care of myself first and that anything else should be dealt with after I’m better.” He really is just hinting at what he’s actually saying, not that the other two need much to figure it out.

“So that’s what you’re doing, taking time to get better before you deal with-” Joe cuts himself off from finishing the sentence as if he would be setting off a bomb.

“Yeah, I just need the time to deal with what’s really important right now. That’s making sure I’m at one hundred percent physically. Singh put me on medical leave following everything, so I’m going to take it, get better and then when I’m ready.” 

After the announcement, he steers the conversation elsewhere but he can’t help but notice Joe looks like he wants to say something.

Joe sits at his desk the next day and watches as Eddie keeps looking towards the stairs to Barry’s lab. He decides that he needs to say something.

“Barry’s on medical leave. Singh made it mandatory.”

Eddie’s head shoots up to look at him and he’s nearly frozen as he tries to respond.

“How’s he doing?” Is all he can think to ask.

“He’s on a new treatment. It’s working. Caitlin says he’ll be recovered in about three months.” It’s a peace offering between them at least that’s what Eddie hopes.

He’s not as worried about the fact that Barry isn’t at work anymore but it leaves both him and Iris feeling lost by his disappearance. They still haven’t come to a conclusion as to what they want to do either. It does become clear that they’ll be waiting a while for Barry to make a reappearance in their lives and it gnaws at them the longer they don't see Barry. They see the flash in the news and catch glimpses of him at meta attacks and crime scenes but it’s not the same.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry gets hurt and things are revealed.

Two weeks is all it takes for Barry’s plans to hold off dealing with whatever the situation with Iris and Eddie is. A bank robbery comes over the police scanner and Barry heads out with Wally to deal with the Metas robbing the bank.

Barry is dealing with the one that has super strength while Wally is fighting a meta with some form of telekinesis. He gets thrown across the room what feels like the dozenth time. Nothing seems to affect the meta he is fighting and he already has done two super sonic punches. It’s clear that physical force isn’t good enough to take him out and he starts thinking of another way to deal with the meta as he pushes himself up from the ground.

“I think I’m gonna have to hit this guy with a lighting blast. It’ll hopefully weaken his muscles so that he can’t use his super strength.” He mentions over the coms and Caitlin thinks about it a second and agrees.

“Yeah, that should work, you should add in another sonic punch for good measure after.” Barry runs around the meta and charges up a lightning throw, hitting the meta right in the chest. His opponent stumbles and is disoriented for the first time and he uses that moment to get the sonic punch in and they crumple to the ground. He’s quick to get the meta cuffs on him and then looks to Wally and sees that he is finishing up as well.

“Good job.” He comments and they drop the meta out front for the police to take them before heading back to Star labs.

“Man you think a meta with telekinesis wouldn’t be that much of a problem.” Wally winced as he stretches his muscles, he’d gotten thrown around like a ragdoll by the meta. 

He turns to Barry after getting no feedback. Barry has a hand on the wall and is supporting himself with it, his eyes shut tight and head tilted down. Wally stops and calls out to him.

“Barry, are you alright man?” Barry looks up at him but can’t help but grimace in pain and hold his side.

“Something feels wrong.” He says and then Wally is at his side, helping him into the cortex shouting for Caitlin.

“What happened?” She asks as Harry and Cisco start helping them get Barry onto the gurney in the med bay.

“I don’t know, he was fine until we got here but the meta with super strength did nail him good a few times.” Wally doesn’t think that Barry got thrown around more than him but it doesn’t mean much.

“He might have an injury we’re not seeing.” Caitlin mentions after her initial assessment shows only moderate injuries. “Barry, where are you in pain?”

He really can’t get the words out but the way he’s holding himself gives her enough of an idea. Harry is already a step ahead, bringing the body scanner overhead turning it on. Both her and Harry look over to the monitor and begin examining it.

“There’s fluid right there. He’s got internal bleeding.” Harry is quick to point out to Caitlin and she scrutinizes the image closely.

“Hand me the wand, there’s something else.” She takes the handheld scanner and presses it up against the area and moves it around the area to get a better look.

“Is that?” Harry’s eyes widen as the image clears up. “We have a problem.”

“What? What’s wrong?” Wally can’t actually tell what is going on but it’s set them in a panic, he can smell it rolling off them.

“We need to get him to a hospital now!” Caitlin says and it alarms Cisco, who is just as confused.

“We can’t just take him to a hospital, he’s a meta, can’t you do something here?” Cisco goes completely ignored by Caitlin as she turns to Wally.

“I need you to help me get him into regular clothes and take us to the hospital. This is way out of my field.” The tone is urgent and more of an order and so he does as she says and speeds Barry out of his suit and into the clothes he was wearing earlier before lifting up Barry and grabbing a hold of Caitlin and going.

He comes to a stop in the middle of the emergency room, shocking some nearby nurses and doctors, but it wears off quickly because it’s not the first time a speedster has brought in a patient.

“Get him on the gurney.” Caitlin tells him and a horde of doctors swarm them and he has to step back once he sets Barry down to let them help. He only hears Caitlin tell someone that they need to get an operating room ready before it gets too loud for him to actually hear what’s wrong. They’re gone moments after, having gone down the hall and he realizes he needs to go before he’s been standing too long.

He still has no idea what’s actually happening but he knows Barry is hurt and that he should let his dad know what happened so he speeds off to CCPD, stopping to drop his suit off at Star labs and he slows down before getting inside to sign in and go through security. He could go past with his speed but he’s now overwhelmed by the news he has to give his dad. He walks into the squad room and doesn’t see him but Captain Singh notices him.

“Wally, your dad’s not back yet if you’re looking for him, is something wrong?” Singh asks him, it’s probably written all over his face and even in his scent.

“No, I need to talk to him now, it’s urgent.” He’s not sure if he should tell him what happened but he’s still trying to figure out how he’s going to tell his dad. Almost as if hearing his name he steps out of the elevators, helping escort the Metas they just fought. Some other officers take the Metas and Joe looks over to see Wally.

“Son, what are you doing here?” Joe can’t help but notice the deer in the headlights look that he has.

“Caitlin took Barry to the hospital for emergency surgery. I don’t know what’s wrong but it’s bad.” The words take a moment to process but they still shock him.

“What?” Wally’s eyes turn sharply to see Eddie right behind his dad, face losing color at the news.

“You guys need to go.” Captain Singh’s words get them moving and they’re headed out of the precinct and heading to the hospital.

On the way Eddie calls Iris to tell her what’s going on and she’s asking questions he can’t answer. They get directed to a waiting room. Iris comes rushing into the room maybe ten minutes after and then Cisco. No one has any answers despite Cisco grilling Harry, who got tight lipped on him.

The room is stiflingly quiet and it’s that way for hours. They aren’t given any updates during the time that they’re there. Iris leans against Eddie, holding his hand for comfort. The scent of worry is heavy in the air of the room and she wants to go demand answers but there are terrifying thoughts of getting news that she doesn’t want that keeps her in her seat. The dread of not knowing what’s going on when it’s a situation out of Caitlin’s hands that she needs to bring him to a hospital and risk exposing him as a meta.

Eddie is equally nervous sitting next to Iris, thinking the same thoughts and looks over to her and she can see the look of regret in his face. It makes her wonder if they’ve messed up and if months maybe even years of holding Barry at arms length was a waste of time, out of what? Fear?

Some of them are half struggling to stay awake and hovering over bitter cups of cheap hospital coffee when Caitlin finally comes into the waiting room. Everyone jumps up at her appearance and she holds up her hands to still them.

“How is he?” Joe gets the words out first, trying to get a confirmation that his son is okay. Caitlin is just as exhausted as them but manages to smile.

“He’s stable.” The sigh of relief is audible through the room.

“He’s being brought up to a room right now. I want to keep him here until I’m sure there’s no risk of complications.” She looks around the room to check and see that there are no extra people in the waiting room and then closes the door for privacy.

“So, are you finally going to explain what’s going on because I couldn’t get shit out of Harry and you two are the only ones that seem to know what’s going on.” Cisco demands, frustrated at being left out and the others are beginning to feel the same way.

Caitlin looks toward Iris and Eddie as she stills in her response but goes ahead. “He was suffering from a placental abruption from fighting the meta today most likely.” 

She’s completely neutral giving the information and she watches as they process what she said. A look of recognition appears on Eddie’s face first and the words stumble out without much thought.

“He’s pregnant.”   
  


It’s clicking with everyone just as he says it and they all stiffen with recognition as to what those words imply. Barry is pregnant and the people involved in that process are most likely Eddie and Iris.

“Yes. I couldn’t operate on him at Star labs because I didn’t have the equipment for prenatal surgery or the training. That’s why I had Wally take us here. There was only so much I could do.” Caitlin is ignoring the broader implications of everything and trying to let it sink in for them. Iris snaps out of it with a sudden thought.

“But that means he’s been pregnant for months. He went out and fought Metas. He’s been hurt before this, how did you not catch this? He shouldn’t have been out there.” Her words are more stressed as she thinks about it and her hand reaches out and grips Eddie’s arm tightly.

“The problem is he shouldn’t have been able to get pregnant. He hasn’t had a heat since he woke up and his hormone levels were never regular for it to happen. I never had a reason to test for it because the levels shouldn’t even support a pregnancy. It presents it’s own problems that we have to consider.” Caitlin tells them and Joe can still tell there’s more to it.

“What does that mean for Barry, that there might be more complications than this one?” He asks but it’s clear he can already tell what the answer is going to be.

“There’s a chance he won’t carry them to term and that’s assuming that he can even sustain the pregnancy. His hormones only recently started regulating properly and I have concerns about his HGC levels and what that means for the development of the fetus. He also hasn’t been getting enough to supply nutrients, he’s been struggling to keep his weight at the minimum, let alone have the extra weight he should have with a pregnancy. There’s a lot of things to consider aside from that.”

It’s not a comfortable thing to discuss and it leaves a lingering fear in the pits of their stomachs.

“Does Barry know that he’s pregnant?” Iris asks in the quiet of the room.

Caitlin nods in confirmation. “We knew going in that the anesthesia wouldn’t work on him. I had to explain what was going to happen. He passed out about ten minutes into the procedure. As far as the doctors that I did the surgery with, they know that he has some unique side effects from being struck by lightning, they’re oblivious about the other reasons.”

A knock on the door startles them and Caitlin opens the door to speak with a nurse quietly before they leave and Caitlin turns back to them.

“They just finished moving Barry, he can’t have visitors immediately, but I have to go check on him. I suggest you guys go get some rest until then. Cisco I do have to ask if you could bring his medication from Star labs so I can have it here in the meantime.” Cisco just numbly agrees to do so and Caitlin is gone to check on Barry.

The group slowly dispersed from the waiting room, choosing to go off in their own directions. Iris and Eddie robotically get in their car and drive to their apartment. Once they get inside they sit down and don’t say a word to one another. Iris opens her phone and starts looking at the pictures from that night.

It had become a regular thing to stare at the pictures trying to piece together memories of that night, looking for answers to questions she didn’t even know. She scrolls through them with an absentminded manner and stops on the frozen image of the three in bed together. An icon catches her eye for the first time looking at the photos.

“Hey Eddie, one of the photos is a video.” She pulls him closer to her and he’s confused by her words until she shoves the phone in his face.

“Should we play it?” He asks but to Iris it really isn’t a question, she turns up the volume on her phone and turns it sideways to look at it properly, then hits play.

The video starts and it moves from an image that looks like they’re just lying together in bed with Barry to the two of them kissing and nuzzling his neck.

“ _ God you’re beautiful. _ ” The words come from Eddie in the video, who looks like he’s half ready to devour Barry with the way he’s marking up his neck.

“ _ You don’t mean that _ .” Barry from the video says in response.

“ _ What do you mean by that? _ ” Iris replies to him and suddenly sets the phone down and all they can see is the ceiling above the bed.  _ “Barry you can’t really think that we couldn’t love you. _ ” She says off camera. “ _ Barry look at me _ .” 

“ _ Hey, what’s wrong? _ ” Eddie’s voice says and there’s movement on the bed that shakes the camera. “ _ Barry, are you crying? Come on, look at us _ .”

“ _ We’re drunk, you can’t tell me that there’s any real chance, that when that changes you two will only love each other. You told me before that it wouldn’t happen and I don’t want to be the only one who wants more than this in the morning. _ ” It’s a sobbing mess of words they hear him choke out.

“ _ Hey, look at us. This isn’t a mistake or just because we’ve been drinking. We care about you and I’m sick of people assuming shit of how I feel. We shouldn’t have to choose between two people especially when I know that you love us and we love you, so you’re not going anywhere. _ ” There are sounds of kisses after Iris speaks.

“ _ Wait? Both you and Eddie, but when? I don’t understand. _ ” Barry’s voice cuts through the kisses.

“ _ Because after watching that stupid alpha flirt with you, we finally realized how we actually felt about you. Our dumbasses have just been avoiding it for too damn long. _ ” Eddie growls out and more movement on the bed sends the phone flying to the ground. There’s a muffled sound, then it gets picked up and the screen blurs as the video cuts.

They sit there for a moment after it ends, then Iris turns to Eddie.

“How did this get so messed up. Why couldn’t we have worked this all out without being too drunk to remember it.” The frustration is painful and overflowing in her voice. Iris leans into Eddie and turns her head into his neck breathing in his scent and lets her tears escape. Eddie tilts his head towards her and his hand rubs her back gently.

“He’s pregnant Iris, he’s carrying our child. A perfect combination of one of us and him and we could’ve lost them, hell we can still lose them.” His own voice is wracked with sobs as everything comes crashing down on them.

It seems from that moment that their anguish is uncontrollable as they sit on the couch and hold each other. Eventually, they become cramped sitting like that for so long and they move away from each other with dried tears on their face. They decide their better off going to bed and slip into bed and pull each other close. It’s an attempt to get some rest but just before they try to get some sleep Iris goes to the video and opens it as a text message.

“ _ Caitlin, could you please show this video to Barry? It’s important to clear some things up. _ ” She sends the text and turns to Eddie for a fitful sleep.

Caitlin is in one of the on-call rooms at the hospital trying to get some sleep while waiting for Barry to wake up from the surgery. She hears her phone ding and grabs it to check it just in case and discovers the text from Iris. She doesn’t want to show the video to Barry without having a guess as to what reaction he could have to it. Against her better judgement she decides to watch it herself.

It feels slightly like an invasion of privacy until the phone ends up pointed at the ceiling and then she understands why Iris wants him to see it. She sets aside her phone and turns it over until she’s actually able to see Barry.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These idiots finally talk to each other.

His abdomen is throbbing as he starts to come to in the hospital room. The initial pain he had felt eased up in comparison and it took sometime to come to fully and recall what had happened.

Barry’s eyes shoot open and look around the room to discover he’s not at Star labs and that he’s alone. The heart monitor reacts to him but they don’t flat line like a regular monitor would with his heart rate and he looks over and sees Caitlin’s portable machine hookup and he calms down as he looks at it because under it is a fetal monitor beating steady, slightly out of sink with his own heart beat.

His hand moves to touch his stomach as he remembers Caitlin’s words. He was pregnant. It filled him with panic at first because he was in pain and had just fought a meta. He could’ve lost the pregnancy, he would’ve lost the child he created with Iris and Eddie.

He remembered pleading with Caitlin to save the baby as they prepared him for surgery and having her talk him through everything while a number of doctors held him in place until he passed out. But now his baby was okay and he couldn’t help but let out a sob of relief.

A nurse knocked on the door seeing that he was awake and responsive.

“Mr.Allen, I just sent someone to go get Dr.Snow. How are you feeling?” He wiped at his eyes as he started to respond.

“Uh, there’s a throbbing pain but it’s not anywhere near as painful when I came in. Is the baby alright?” He asked with an urgency to know what had happened while he was out. The nurse smiled politely at him and started checking his vitals.

“You’re both doing great right now. The baby has a strong and healthy heart beat. Dr.Snow will be able to tell you more but in the meantime let’s make sure you’re alright.” The nurse started checking his IV bags and making notes on the chart while asking him questions in regards to how he felt. As they finished up, Caitlin appeared at the door and the nurse handed over the chart before leaving.

“How are you feeling Barry? Anything you’re concerned about?” She poses the question gently to him.

“I’m healing but can you tell me about how the baby is? How did the surgery go?” He can’t help but feel like there might be something wrong that he can’t see on the monitor or feel.

She puts her hand on his to comfort him. “We repaired the abruption and it’s been twelve hours since then so you should be fine now. You’ve been on your hormone treatments and they’ve been helping you and you’ve gone through a ton of glucose to supplement your nutrients given your condition. I’m not going to lie, your pregnancy is going to be high risk. You haven’t had any prenatal care till now, you’re underweight for your pregnancy, and you’ve been suffering from hormone sickness. It easily would’ve caused a miscarriage had it not been for the speedforce protecting you. There’s risk of development issues and more complications in the future but right now they’re fine.”

Caitlin gives him the full scope of prognosis, she’s good at keeping him calm and assured even while giving him news that terrifies him.

“So what happens from here?” Barry’s hands grip the sheets as he asks.

“We’re going to start you on an intense pre-natal regime with vitamins and supplements, I’m going to have Cisco change up the calorie bar formula and calculate a new diet plan for you to start putting on weight. But before any of that we need to have a discussion regarding Iris and Eddie.” She slips it right into the conversation and he freezes looking guilty and accepting about having to face this sooner than he wanted.

“I don’t want to keep this from them but I don’t want them to hate me. Do they already know about-?” Barry figures that there’s no way he got rushed to a hospital and they wouldn’t know. They’d probably threaten someone to find out what was going on.

“Oh, Barry, they won’t hate you. Iris actually asked me to show you a video she found, I think it might clear up some doubts.” She hands him her phone with the texts that Iris sent the night before on the screen.

He reads the first text and then looks at the still of the video recognizing where the image is from. Trusting Caitlin he gathers the courage to press play. He wonders what it will show and it all feels like he’s supposed to be watching a train wreck in slow motion but it’s not that at all. He feels shock set in as the words reach him. 

Iris and Eddie _ love _ him.

He watched the video at least a dozen times when Caitlin reaches a soothing hand out and rubs his back. It’s then that he notices his own tears and she’s smiling at him.

“They love me.” He can’t help but choke out and he feels a weight lift from his shoulders and he sort of slumps back and starts laughing while tears continue to stream down his face. 

Caitlin laughs with him or more at his own happy delirious laughing. It takes him a decent while to stop, coughing a bit which causes him to wince slightly but he looks back over to her. “They love me.” He says breathlessly and he smiles in a way Caitlin hasn’t seen before.

“Yes Barry, they do.” She responds to him as he continues to smile. He looks down at her phone again and then back to her a question brewing on his tongue.

“Yes, you can call them Barry.” She’s two steps ahead of him. “I’ll give you privacy.”

He stares at the phone stupidly after she leaves. It was an exciting idea in his head but now trying to go ahead and do it he feels the nerves tingling and he acts like it’s a crush he’s never spoken to before which is ridiculous because he’s having a baby with them. He’s known Iris for over seventeen years and Eddie for nearly three, there really should be no boundaries.

He hits the call button quickly before he can panic any further. The phone rings, and rings as he taps his fingers. He thinks it might be going to voicemail when it gets picked up.

“Caitlin, hello? Is everything all right? Is Barry okay?” Those are the first words out of her mouth and it leaves him with a sense of relief.

“Iris.” He says into the phone and it stops her litany of questions.

“Barry.” Iris sounds just as relieved as him and in the background he hears a groggy Eddie call out his name in response to Iris saying it. “You’re awake, thank god.” She starts to get emotional and it affects him too.

“Yeah, I’m awake. I saw the video you sent Caitlin.” He’s not actually sure what he wants to say in response to it. Really there’s so much for him to say.

“So you know we love you, regardless of everything, right? It’s not just because. It’s just we took a long time to come to the conclusion sober than when drunk. We were just to dumb to realize.” The words make his heart ache with need to see her and Eddie.

“Not dumb, we’re all just scared of admitting it.” Barry comforts her.

“I know you love me because I love you too, both of you.” Iris sounds as deliriously happy as he had been earlier, there’s a bunch of noise he can’t make out but it thrills him.

“You’re going to come to the hospital right? I need to see you guys, I haven’t seen you in weeks and I feel better when you’re here.” He manages to get the words out, he’s not sure if it’s too soon despite everything.

“Of course, we just need sometime to get ready. And coffee.” It’s Eddie who actually says it and he’s absolutely giddy to hear his voice. They must have turned on the speaker.

“We can be there in an hour.” Iris chimes in and he hears them start moving about the room bumping into things.

“I love you guys.” Barry says with less restraint this time and he hears them go silent.

“We love you too.” They say together and then Iris adds on.

“We’ll be there soon, okay. Only goodbye until we get there.”

“Okay.” Barry agrees and then hangs up the phone so he doesn’t distract them from getting ready.

He looks up to where Caitlin is outside the room waiting for his signal and he smiles at her. She gets up and comes back to the room and he hands her her cellphone back.

“So what did you say?” Caitlin asks him.

“I told them I saw the video, that I loved them both and that I missed them. They’re on their way, Iris said it’d be an hour at most.” He just continued to smile deliriously happy about the sudden turn of events. He did wish it had all happened a lot sooner and without him getting hurt and risking his pregnancy.

“Well in the meantime, I’m going to have some food brought up for you. I’m going to run blood work again, get another bag of glucose set up and I’ll figure out when to do another treatment.” She starts listing off the things she needs to do and then pauses. “I think I’ll want to do an ultrasound, but I think you’ll want Iris and Eddie to be here for that.”

It’s an exciting and nerve wracking thing to think about and he can’t help but touch his stomach. Only his personal knowledge is what let’s him know there’s a child there. He’s not showing like he should be at this stage. He’s aware that it’s been months but he can’t pin down how long it’s been but he’ll ask Caitlin about how far along he should be. Caitlin returns with a large food tray and two of his calorie bars and he begins eating them knowing full well it’s to help him get on track to delivering a healthy baby and he doesn’t want anything less than.

When he’s gotten a bit of food in him, Caitlin produces some prenatal vitamins and medications explaining to him what each one does and why he needs them.

He’s finishing the last few bites when he looks up and he can see Eddie and Iris walking off the elevator. Iris is looking towards the staff desk when Eddie spots him, beaming and grabs Iris’s attention and then they’re at the door. They can’t help but linger in the doorway as they try to find their words.

“Hi.” Barry initiates the conversation so that they can hopefully kick it into gear because just smelling their scent was making him need them.

“Hey.” It’s unintentionally said in unison and he can’t help but laugh and it sets them all into a fit of laughter.

He motions for them to come in while he’s stifling his laughter and finally they step inside and Barry takes both of their hands to pull them towards him. It doesn’t take much further action to be embraced by the alpha and beta, and he let their scents envelope him as they nuzzled him, he stretched his neck to give them more access, shivering at the kisses they laid.

Caitlin coughed next to them and gave them a well meaning look of understanding but making them aware they were still in a public hospital. 

“I was hoping to be able to do an ultrasound now that you’re all together.” She gently interrupted their reunion. 

Iris and Eddie blushed though their embarrassment quickly turned into excitement.

“Of course.” They moved out of the way so that Caitlin could bring the ultrasound around moving to the other side of the bed but remaining close. Iris chooses to hold his hand while Eddie places his hand lightly on Barry’s shoulder.

Caitlin helps lift up the hospital gown because he’s still sore from surgery, carefully keeping the bed sheet in place for his privacy. She squirts the gel for the ultrasound on his stomach which isn’t as cold as he was expecting, in fact it’s kind of warm.

“They have warmers for the gel, wonders of new technology, huh?” She jokes with him as she turns on and adjusts the monitor. The ultrasound wand comes out and she uses it to spread it around his abdomen as the image starts to make its appearance on the screen.

Everyone’s eyes are intently watching the screen and out of all of them, Barry has the most idea of what he’s looking for while still almost completely unsure at the same time.

“It’s looking good so far, no signs of hemorrhaging. Placenta looks almost as if nothing happened.” The comments are more her doctor side taking notes before she gets back to giving them what they want to know.

“Okay, right here is the placenta where the baby is, that right there.” She outlines it with her finger on the screen so they know exactly what she’s talking about. “And if you look over here.” She adjusts the wand a little to widen the view.

“Wait, are there two?” Eddie says as he moves closer to the screen to verify what he’s seeing. Caitlin nods, smiling at them. She had obviously known and wanted to surprise them.

“So you’re saying-” Iris’s brain is desperately trying to help her get the words out but she’s pretty sure she’s in shock, so Barry completes the thought for her.

“It’s twins. We’re going to have twins.” He can’t help but stare at the miraculous event occurring in his body.

“It’s not all that uncommon for omega’s in a triad to release two eggs in order to try and conceive with both partners. It doesn’t always work out that way either. I was surprised that it happened at all considering it was outside of a heat with no cycle on top of that.” 

Caitlin starts explaining to them. “I did do some research while you were asleep and I think it sort of helps explain how this was possible in the first place. Sometimes the body recognizes that they have an innate or genetic compatibility with another person and it causes an imprinted bond. Your bodies recognize each other as mates despite the fact that you’ve never even bonded or been with them before that. Most people don’t find out if they have any innate connection to another person and never have a relationship with a person they match with.”

“However, when they do end up with that person their body interacts differently and their body chemistry causes entirely different reactions than what you see with other bonded couples. You’ve probably even noticed some.”

Barry half remembers hearing about this in his chemistry classes years ago and if he really thinks about it he can’t recall a single partner that could make him feel the way Eddie and Iris did with just their scent or touch.

“In the studies they’ve conducted, almost every single couple with this that were intimate resulted in a pregnancy after their first time. There’s a unique chemical reaction that happens between those who are compatible which would explain what happened, because your pregnancy has occurred against all odds. I would like to look into it but obviously Barry’s health comes first. So your unique circumstances aside, I think I was in the middle of your ultrasound.”

She stops herself from continuing on, realizing she had gotten side tracked. It’s a lot of information for them to adjust to as well so she gets them back on track.

“So obviously, you can see the placenta but you look here towards the middle you can see the baby’s head and then are the arms and legs. And over here with the other is the head and then it’s arms and legs.”

Caitlin pointed out the details and what had originally looked like grey blobs actually form two tiny babies inside of him. He’s just staring in awe at the screen while she finishes up with the ultrasound telling them she’ll print out scans when he remembers to ask a question.

“How far along am I? I have to be pretty far along but I don’t actually have a specific date to go by.” He wonders how much time he’ll even have to prepare, it’s been so long since this whole thing started.

“I estimated somewhere between eighteen to twenty weeks, It’s about four or so months, you’re almost at the halfway point.” She confirmed for him. “I have to go take care of some things but I’ll be back, it’ll give you guys some time to talk, maybe figure out some things. I’m sure everyone else will start bugging me about coming to see you soon.”

Once they’re along Barry finds himself enveloped in a hug from both sides. They’re scenting him all over and pressing kisses all over. He’s admittedly a little selfish and just lets them cover him in affection and groans in disappointment when they pull away.

“Don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere, I promise.” Iris tells him. “We just need to confirm a few things.”

He can feel anxiety build at the words but Eddie’s not having any of it. “It’s not anything bad, just relax and listen okay?” Eddie hugs him from behind as he soothes him.

“You still want us right? You don’t have any concerns about the innate bonding Caitlin mentioned, it doesn’t affect how we feel about this at all, but I have to know if it does for you.” Iris is searching his face for any emotion that would suggest otherwise.

“No, I think it just explains a lot of what I’ve felt and known for a while. Iris, I told you that you’ve always been able to ground me and to find out that we’ve always been connected since we were kids, this just proves it. Eddie, I don’t think that any of what we’ve been through is a coincidence. Iris and I met you together the night the particle accelerator exploded, the night that everything changes for all of us.”

“The universe put us together that night for a reason beyond Eobard or anyone else. I can’t help but think about how the time masters said that time finds a way to correct itself and after everything we’re somehow right here, probably pissing off some time remnant of Eobard because everything is the way it’s supposed to be, and not the way he wanted it.”

“You were ready to sacrifice your life for mine to prevent him from existing and through a miracle you lived, there’s a part of me that has thought about that everyday and been glad that you are here just because of who you are and how it proves him wrong in every way. It’s why I love you both. You’ve become a part of me in a way that I can’t explain and it would hurt to lose that.”

He had just let his mouth take over and explode with everything that had been on his mind and despite that disaster the happy tears that streamed down their faces caused his own. He had spent all this time terrified about his emotions ruining everything and all it was, was a wall blocking them from the truth. A truth of how they were just as terrified of the same thing for the same reasons.

“Well now I feel stupid.” Eddie laughs, wiping away tears. “I’m also pretty sure, since our parents may have seen this coming way ahead of us, because now that I think of it some things Joe and my mom said make a lot more sense.”

“Are you telling me that my dad had suspicions that we were all in love to begin with and he didn’t say shit again.” Barry laughs at her outrage leaning into Eddie who starts laughing more. “I swear it would be easier if he just came out with this stuff before we all acted dumb about it, it would save us a lot of time and bullshit.”

“Yeah but when he’s told you things before you’ve blown him off, so it’s really a double edged sword, Iris.” Barry points out and she rolls her eyes at him.

“Anyway. That’s not what this is about. We’re trying to figure out how we should move forward. I think we’ve established that we love each other without any doubts but obviously there’s some big decisions that matter in making a relationship work.” Iris steers them away from their amusement at her outrage.

“We’ve kind of skipped all the way to expecting parents without having any official relationship and we don’t really have any memories of the conception either, so there’s a lot of things going into this that will be new for us.”

“Iris, I can tell you’re over thinking and you’re worried but trust me it’ll be fine. We can do this and figure everything out. We still have time.” Barry grabs her hand again, squeezing it.

“I know but we’ve just wasted so much time and all I can think about is how much I want to do.” She squeezes back and steals a kiss.

Eddie smiles at them and joins the conversation. “Well I definitely know the first thing we need to do is move Barry in with us.”

“Actually, we’ll need to find a bigger place because a one bedroom apartment will not work with twins.” Barry helpfully reminds him and Eddie is practically giddy at the reminder that they’ll be parents soon, mates too if he had anything to say about it.

“Both of you are making fairly good points here but the first step is really telling everyone that our dumb asses are finally together and that we’re going to have twins.” Iris tells them teasingly, adding- “Which mostly means Eddie is going to have to call his parents and we’ll have to fill out some papers at work.”

“My mom is definitely going to be so happy she’ll cry. I’ll be the first kid to give grandkids, two of them. She’ll probably expect a second wedding, not that I’m rushing things, but I’m saying she’s going to be like that.” Eddie’s slight panic at his mother’s reaction is enough to cause fits of giggles from Iris and Barry.

“Babe, we know how your mother is, we’ve done this before.” Iris reminds him. Barry chuckles as he recalls how enthusiastic Christine Thawne had been during their wedding preparations.

“I think Joe will want to hear from us first though. I'm surprised he left the hospital.” He remarks, Barry had honestly expected him to be camping at his bedside when he woke up.

“Caitlin made us all go home, we couldn’t visit you immediately anyway and most of us had been up all day already. She’s very intimidating as you already know, so we had to.” Eddie explains helpfully.

“I can hear you, you know.” Caitlin’s exasperated voice calls out from the hall and she walks over to the doorway. “I’m just being a good doctor making sure you’re all being in good health. Also Joe already called and I told him he could come and he’ll be here soon.”

Caitlin left then alone again, shaking her head at them. Joe and Wally came wandering in from the elevators a few minutes later, looking very lost staring at the numbers marked on the wall for their direction. Iris got up from the bed and walked over to call out to them.

“Dad, Wally, over here.” She waves at them, Joe is both surprised and relieved to see that both she and Eddie are with Barry, and that they’re obviously comfortable with one another.

“Hey Barr, how are you feeling?” Barry finds that Joe is quick to make his way over to him.

“I’m a little sore and tender, but Caitlin says that I’m mostly all healed and that everything is good.” Joe’s eyes trail down to Barry’s abdomen as he places his hand on it. “Babies are okay too, though I’m going to have to be very careful from now on.”

Barry notices the tears in his eyes. “Babies? As in more than one? Well aren’t you full of surprises.” He sweeps Barry into a hug, careful to avoid disrupting him too much.

“Yes, twins, actually.” Iris is beaming as she announces that fact. Both her and Eddie are preening over it. Wally can’t help but let out a cheer and talking about being an uncle. Joe is still half hugging Barry, wiping happy tears from his eyes.

“I guess this is one way for you guys to get your heads out of your asses, wished it had happened a little sooner and without all the drama.” He remarks.

This of course gave Iris the opening she needed to interrogate her father on the matter.

“And how long ago did you realize this, huh? How long were you going to let us bumble around like love sick idiots instead of saying something, again.” She voiced her annoyance. 

“To be fair, I had some suspicions around the time Zoom broke Barry’s back but I wasn’t sure. I was definitely sure when you started scenting the hell out of Barry. I had other officers coming up to me, asking about when you three started courting.” His response brings up a whole new set of questions.

“What? The whole precinct thought we were already together because we scented Barry? But that’s normal pack behavior?” Eddie was entirely bewildered by the assumption his coworkers had made.

“You two hadn’t scented Barry at all in the last few years until a few months ago.” Joe explains as he sighs at the ridiculousness of it.

“We totally scented Barry before this- oh my god, no we didn’t, did we?” Iris cuts off her own denial of the fact that as soon as she starts to think about it, she remembers how her own cuddling and scenting habits had changed after his coma.

“Yeah Iris, the first time we scented and cuddled after I woke up was when we did family movie night with Wally for the first time.” Barry adds into Joe’s argument.

“Wait, that’s why Barry was so uncomfortable? Man, a lot of things you’ve guys been doing are making a lot more sense.” Wally complains to them.

While they’re all laughing at this information in retrospect, Cisco finally makes his appearance. He comes walking into the room with a giant stuffed bear that says congratulations and a balloon that says ‘expecting’.

“Hey, you all started this party without me.” Cisco complains. “I even brought presents.”

“Sorry Cisco. Technically Caitlin is in charge of visitation, so not my fault.” Barry apologizes to him. “Thank you, so far you’re the first person to bring a gift.”   


“That’s because I’m the awesome uncle, so of course I’m going to do that for my niece or nephew.” Cisco gloats in response.

“It could be both, we’re having twins.” Eddie pipes up.

Wally cuts in before Cisco can respond. “Who says you’re going to be the awesome uncle? That’s obviously my role, right next to best uncle.”

“What of course I can and also why do you get both titles?”

As Barry watches Cisco and Wally bicker over the title of uncles, he’s definitely sure that his children will be well loved.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading! Check out my Tumblr: TheScribblerQueen.


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